Vehicle object detection system and method

ABSTRACT

System for obtaining information about an object in the vehicle including one or more resonators or reflectors arranged in association with the object, each resonator emitting an energy signal upon receipt of a signal at an excitation frequency, a transmitter device for transmitting signals at least at the excitation frequency of each resonator, an energy signal detector for detecting the energy signal emitted by each resonator upon receipt of the signal at the excitation frequency, and a processor coupled to the detector for obtaining information about the object upon analysis of the energy signal detected by the detector. The information obtained about the object may be a distance between each resonator and the detector, which positional information is useful for controlling components in the vehicle such as the occupant restraint or protection device. If the object is a seat, the information obtained about the seat may be an indication of the position of the seat, the position of the back cushion of the seat, the position of the bottom cushion of the seat, the angular orientation of the seat, and other seat parameters. The resonator(s) may be arranged within the object and may be a SAW device, antenna and/or RFID tag. When several resonators are used, each may be designed to emit an energy signal upon receipt of a signal at a different excitation frequency. The resonators may be tuned resonators including an acoustic cavity or a vibrating mechanical element

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/891,432, filed Jun. 26, 2001 which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/838,920filed Apr. 20, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/563,556 filed May 3, 2000, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/437,535filed Nov. 10, 1999, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/047,703 filed Mar. 25, 1998, now U.S.Pat. No. 6,039,139, which in turn is:

[0002] 1) a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/640,068 filed Apr. 30, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,782, which inturn is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/239,978 filed May 9, 1994, now abandoned, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/040,978filed Mar. 31, 1993, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/878,571 filed May 5, 1992, nowabandoned; and

[0003] 2) a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/905,876 filed Aug. 4, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,802, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/505,036 filed Jul.21, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462, which is a continuation of theSer. No. 08/040,978 application which is a continuation-in-part of theSer. No. 07/878,571 application.

[0004] This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/639,299 filed Aug. 15, 2000 which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/905,877 filed Aug.4, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,537, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/505,036 filed Jul. 25, 1995, now U.S.Pat. No. 5,653,462, which is a continuation of the Ser. No. 08/040,978application which is a continuation-in-part of the Ser. No. 07/878,571application.

[0005] This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/543,678 filed Apr. 7, 2000 which in turn is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/047,704filed Mar. 25, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,639, which is: 1) acontinuation-in-part of the Ser. 08/640,068 application which is acontinuation application of the Ser. 08/239,978 application; and 2) acontinuation-in-part of the Ser. No. 08/905,876 application, which is acontinuation of the Ser. No. 08/505,036 application, which is acontinuation of the Ser. No. 08/040,978 application which is acontinuation-in-part of the Ser. No. 07/878,571 application.

[0006] This application is also related to (in view of common subjectmatter), but does not claim priority from, U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/084,641 filed May 26, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,978, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/737,138 filed Dec. 14, 2000, now U.S.Pat. No. 6,325,414, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/409,625 filedOct. 1, 1999, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/058,706 filed Jan. 28,2002 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/114,533 filed Apr. 2, 2002.

[0007] All of the foregoing patent applications and patents areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The present invention relates generally to methods andarrangements for obtaining information about an occupying item in avehicle or a part in the vehicle using a wave-detecting device whichreceives waves emanating from or generated by a reflector or resonator.The reflector or resonator is arranged in association with the vehicleor occupying item so that the waves emanating therefrom or generatedthereby can be processed to provide information about the occupyingitem, such as its presence, position, or information about the vehicle,such as the position of the seat when the resonator is placed in theseat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0009] 1. History and General Statement of the Problem

[0010] In 1984, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a requirementfor frontal crash protection of automobile occupants. This regulationmandated “passive occupant restraints” for all passenger cars by 1992. Amore recent regulation required both driver and passenger side airbagson all passenger cars and light trucks by 1998. In addition, the demandfor airbags is constantly accelerating in both Europe and Japan (˜36million vehicles) and all vehicles produced in these areas andeventually worldwide (˜50 million vehicles) will likely be equipped withairbags as standard equipment, if they do not include them already.

[0011] Whereas thousands of lives have been saved by airbags,significant improvements can be made. As discussed in detail in U.S.Pat. No. 5,653,462 referenced above, for a variety of reasons, vehicleoccupants can be or get too close to the airbag before it deploys andcan be seriously injured or killed upon deployment of the airbag.

[0012] Also, a child in a rear facing child seat, which is placed on theright front passenger seat, is in danger of being seriously injured ifthe passenger airbag deploys. This has now become an industry-wideconcern and the U.S. automobile industry is continually searching for aneasy, economical solution, which will prevent the deployment of thepassenger side airbag if a rear facing child seat is present. Animprovement on the invention disclosed in the above-referenced patent,as will be disclosed in greater detail below, includes moresophisticated means to identify objects within the passenger compartmentand will solve this problem.

[0013] Initially, these systems will solve the out-of-position occupantand the rear facing child seat problems related to current airbagsystems and prevent unneeded deployments when a seat is unoccupied.Airbags are now under development to protect rear seat occupants invehicle crashes. A system is therefore needed to detect the presence ofoccupants, position, (to determine if they are out-of-position), andtype(to identify the presence of a rear facing child seat) in the rearseat. Current and future automobiles may have eight or more airbags asprotection is sought for rear seat occupants and from side impacts. Inaddition to eliminating the disturbance of unnecessary airbagdeployments, the cost of replacing these airbags will be excessive ifthey all deploy in an accident. The improvements described belowminimize this cost by not deploying an airbag for a seat, which is notoccupied by a human being. An occupying item of a seat may be a livingoccupant such as a human being or dog, another living organism such as aplant, or an inanimate object such as a box or bag of groceries.

[0014] Side impact airbag systems began appearing on 1995 vehicles. Thedanger of deployment induced injuries will exist for side impact airbagsas they now do for frontal impact airbags. A child with his head againstthe airbag is such an example. The system of this invention willminimize such injuries.

[0015] 2. General Solution to the Problem and Resulting Benefits

[0016] A device to monitor the vehicle interior and identify itscontents is needed to solve these and many other related problems. Forexample, once a Vehicle Interior Identification and Monitoring System(VIMS) for identifying and monitoring the contents of a vehicle is inplace, many other products become possible including the following:

[0017] Inflators and control systems now exist which will adjust theamount of gas flowing into and/or out of the airbag to account for thesize and position of the occupant and for the severity of the accident.The vehicle identification and monitoring system of this invention willcontrol such systems based on the presence, size and position of vehicleoccupants or the presence, position and orientation of an occupied childseat.

[0018] Vehicles can be provided with a standard cellular phone or othertelematics communication system as well as the Global Positioning System(GPS), an automobile navigation or location system with an optionalconnection to a manned assistance facility, which is now available onseveral vehicle models. In the event of an accident, the phone mayautomatically call 911, or contact OnStar™ or similar service foremergency assistance and report the position of the vehicle. If thevehicle also has a system as described below for monitoring each seatlocation, the number and perhaps the condition of the occupants couldalso be reported and/or photographs of the vehicle interior before,during and/or after the accident can be transmitted. In that way, theemergency service (EMS) would know what equipment and how manyambulances to send to the accident site and prioritize the accident whenseveral accidents occur in the same time frame. Moreover, acommunication channel can be opened between the vehicle and a monitoringfacility/emergency response facility or personnel to enable directionsto be provided to the injured occupant(s) of the vehicle to assist inany necessary first aid prior to arrival of the emergency assistancepersonnel.

[0019] Once an occupant sensor is operational, the vehicle entertainmentsystem can be improved if the number, size and location of occupants andother objects were known. However, it is not believed that, prior to theinstant invention, engineers have thought to determine the number, sizeand/or location of the occupants and use such determination incombination with the entertainment system. Indeed, this information canbe provided by the vehicle interior identification and monitoring systemof this invention to thereby improve a vehicle's entertainment system.Once one considers monitoring the space in the passenger compartment analternate method of characterizing the sonic environment comes to mindwhich is to send and receive a test sound to see what frequencies arereflected, absorbed or excite resonances and then adjust the spectraloutput of the entertainment system accordingly.

[0020] As the VIMS improves to where such things as the exact locationof the occupants ears and eyes can be determined, even more significantimprovements to the entertainment system become possible through the useof noise canceling sound, and the rear view mirrors can be automaticallyadjusted for the driver's eye location.

[0021] Another example involves the monitoring of the driver's behaviorover time that can be used to warn a driver if he or she is fallingasleep, or to stop the vehicle if the driver loses the capacity tocontrol it.

[0022] Similarly to the entertainment system, the heating, ventilationand air conditioning system (HVAC) can be improved if the number,attributes and location of vehicle occupants were known. This can beused to provide a climate control system tailored to each occupant, forexample, or the system can be turned off for certain seat locations ifthere are no occupants present at those locations.

[0023] In some cases, the position of a particular part of the occupantis of interest such as: (a) his hand or arm and whether it is in thepath of a closing window so that the motion of the window needs to bestopped; (b) the position of the shoulder so that the scat beltanchorage point can be adjusted for the best protection of the occupant;or, (c) the position of the rear of the occupants head so that theheadrest can be adjusted to minimize whiplash injuries in rear impacts

[0024] Additionally, using an advanced VIMS, as explained below, theposition of the driver's eyes can be accurately determined and portionsof the windshield, or of a special visor, can be selectively darkened toeliminate the glare from the sun or oncoming vehicle headlights. Thissystem can use electro-chromic glass, a liquid crystal device, XeroxGyricon, Research Frontiers SPD, semiconducting and metallic (organic)polymer displays, spatial light monitors, electronic “Venetian blinds”,electronic polarizers or other appropriate technology, and, in somecases, detectors to detect the direction of the offending light source.In addition to eliminating the glare, the standard sun visor can nowalso be eliminated Alternately, the glare filter can be placed inanother device such as a transparent sun visor that is placed betweenthe driver's eyes and the windshield.

[0025] 3. Pattern Recognition

[0026] The present invention adds more sophisticated pattern recognitioncapabilities such as fuzzy logic systems, neural networks, modularneural network systems or other pattern recognition computer basedalgorithms to the occupant position measurement system disclosed in theabove referenced patents and/or patent applications and greatly extendsthe areas of application of this technology. An example of such apattern recognition system using neural networks using sonar isdiscussed in two papers by Gorman, R. P. and Sejnowski, T. J. “Analysisof Hidden Units in a Layered Network Trained to Classify Sonar Targets”,Neural Networks, Vol. 1. pp. 75-89, 1988, and “Learned Classification ofSonar Targets Using a Massively Parallel Network”, IEEE Transactions onAcoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Vol. 36, No. 7, July 1988.

[0027] 4. Definitions

[0028] Some embodiments of the invention are described below and unlessspecifically noted, it is the applicants' intention that the words andphrases in the specification and claims be given the ordinary andaccustomed meaning to those of ordinary skill in the applicable art(s).If the applicant intends any other meaning, he will specifically statehe is applying a special meaning to a word or phrase.

[0029] Likewise, applicants' use of the word “function” here is notintended to indicate that the applicants seek to invoke the specialprovisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, to define theirinvention. To the contrary, if applicants wish to invoke the provisionsof 35 U.S.C.§112, sixth paragraph, to define their invention, they willspecifically set forth in the claims the phrases “means for” or “stepfor” and a function, without also reciting in that phrase any structure,material or act in support of the function. Moreover, even if applicantsinvoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, to definetheir invention, it is the applicants' intention that their inventionsnot be limited to the specific structure, material or acts that aredescribed in the preferred embodiments herein. Rather, if applicantsclaim their inventions by specifically invoking the provisions of 35U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, it is nonetheless their intention to coverand include any and all structure, materials or acts that perform theclaimed function, along with any and all known or later developedequivalent structures, materials or acts for performing the claimedfunction.

[0030] “Pattern recognition” as used herein will generally mean anysystem which processes a signal that is generated by an object, or ismodified by interacting with an object, in order to determine which oneof a set of classes that the object belongs to. Such a system mightdetermine only that the object is or is not a member of one specifiedclass, or it might attempt to assign the object to one of a larger setof specified classes, or find that it is not a member of any of theclasses in the set. The signals processed are generally electricalsignals coming from transducers which are sensitive to either acousticor electromagnetic radiation and if electromagnetic, they can be eithervisible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radar or other part of theelectromagnetic spectrum, or electric or magnetic fields.

[0031] “To identify” as used herein will generally mean to determinethat the object belongs to a particular set or class. The class may beone containing all rear facing child seats, one containing all humanoccupants, all human occupants not sitting in a rear facing child seat,or all humans in a certain height or weight range, all humans that arein a position where they can be protected by an airbag, all humans thatare in a position where they are at risk to be seriously injured by anairbag depending on the purpose of the system. In the case where aparticular person is to be recognized, the set or class will containonly a single element, the person to be recognized.

[0032] 5. Some Examples of the Invention

[0033] In a passive infrared system a detector receives infraredradiation from an object in its field of view, in this ease the vehicleoccupant, and determines the temperature of the occupant based on theinfrared radiation. The VIMS can then respond to the temperature of theoccupant, which can either be a child in a rear facing child seat or anormally seated occupant, to control some other system. This technologycan provide input data to a pattern recognition system but it haslimitations related to temperature. The sensing of the child could posea problem if the child is covered with blankets. It also might not bepossible to differentiate between a rear facing child seat and a forwardfacing child seat In all cases, the technology will fail to detect theoccupant if the ambient temperature reaches body temperature as it doesin hot climates. Nevertheless, for use in the control of the vehicleclimate, for example, a passive infrared system that permits an accuratemeasurement of each occupant's temperature is useful.

[0034] In a laser optical system an infrared laser beam is used tomomentarily illuminate an object, occupant or child seat in the manneras described, and illustrated in FIG. 8, of U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462cross-referenced above In some cases, a charge-coupled device (a type ofTV camera also referred to as a CCD array) or a CMOS device is used toreceive the reflected light. In other cases when a-scanning laser isused a pin or avalanche diode or other photo detector can be used. Thelaser can either be used in a scanning mode, or, through the use of alens, a cone of light, swept line of light, or a pattern or structuredlight can be created which covers a large portion of the object.Additionally, one or more LEDs can be used as a light source. Alsotriangulation can be used in conjunction with an offset scanning laserto determine the range of the illuminated spot from the light detector.Various focusing systems also can have applicability in someimplementations to measure the distance to an occupant. In most cases, apattern recognition system, as defined above, is used to identify andclassify, and can be used to locate, the illuminated object and itsconstituent parts. The optical systems generally provide the mostinformation about the object and at a rapid data rate. Its main drawbackis cost which is considerably above that of ultrasonic or passiveinfrared systems. As the cost of lasers and imagers comes down in thefuture, this system will become more competitive. Depending on theimplementation of the system, there may be some concern for the safetyof the occupant if a laser light can enter the occupant's eyes. This isminimized if the laser operates in the infrared spectrum particularly atthe “eye-safe” frequencies.

[0035] Radar systems have similar properties to the laser systemdiscussed above. The wavelength of a particular radar system can limitthe ability of the pattern recognition system to detect object featuressmaller than a certain size. Also, depending on the radar frequency, thedetecting method can be based on the modification of the waves indifferent ways such as reflection, absorption, scattering ortransmission. Once again, however, there is some concern about thehealth effects of radar on children and other occupants. This concern isexpressed in various reports available from the United States Food andDrug Administration Division of Devices.

[0036] Naturally, electromagnetic waves from other parts of theelectromagnetic spectrum can also be used such as, for example, thoseused with what are sometimes referred to as capacitive or electric fieldsensors, for example as described in By Kithil et al. U.S. Pat. Nos.5,366,241, 5,602,734, 5,691,693, 5,802,479, 5,844,486 and 6,014,602; ByJinno et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,031; and SAE technical papers 982292and 971051 which are incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, asdiscussed in more detail below, the sensing of the change in thecharacteristics of the near field that surrounds an antenna is aneffective and economical method of determining the presence of water inthe vicinity of the antenna and thus a measure of occupant presence. Theuse of electric field and capacitance sensors and their equivalence tothe occupant sensors described herein requires a special discussion.

[0037] 6. Electric Field, Capacitance and Wave Sensors

[0038] Electric field sensors and wave sensors are essentially the samefrom the point of view of sensing the presence of an occupant in avehicle. In both cases, a time varying electric field is disturbed ormodified by the presence of the occupant. At high frequencies in thevisual, infrared and high frequency radio wave region, the sensor isbased on its capability to sense change of wave characteristics of theelectromagnetic field, such as amplitude, phase or frequency. As thefrequency drops, other characteristics of the field are measured. Atstill lower frequencies, the occupant's dielectric properties modifyparameters of the reactive electric field in the occupied spacebetween/near the plates of a capacitor. In this latter case, the sensorsenses the change in charge distribution on the capacitor plates bymeasuring, for example, the current wave magnitude or phase in theelectric circuit that drives the capacitor. These measured parametersare directly connected with parameters of the displacement current inthe occupied space. In all cases, the presence of the occupant reflects,absorbs or modifies the waves or variations in the electric field in thespace occupied by the occupant. Thus for the purposes of this invention,capacitance, electric field or electromagnetic wave sensors areequivalent and although they are all technically “field” sensors theywill be considered as “wave” sensors herein. What follows is adiscussion comparing the similarities and differences between two typesof field or wave sensors, electromagnetic wave sensors and capacitivesensors as exemplified by Kithil in U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,734.

[0039] An electromagnetic field disturbed or emitted by a passenger inthe case of an electromagnetic wave sensor, for example, and theelectric field sensor of Kithil, for example, are in many ways similarand equivalent for the purposes of this invention. The electromagneticwave sensor is an actual electromagnetic wave sensor by definitionbecause they sense parameters of a wave, which is a coupled pair ofcontinuously changing electric and magnetic fields. The electric fieldhere is not a static, potential one. It is essentially a dynamic,rotational electric field coupled with a changing magnetic one, that is,an electromagnetic wave. It cannot be produced by a steady distributionof electric charges. It is initially produced by moving electric chargesin a transmitter, even if this transmitter is a passenger body for thecase of a passive infrared sensor.

[0040] In the Kithil sensor, a static electric field is declared as aninitial material agent coupling a passenger and a sensor (see Column 5,lines 5-7): “The proximity sensor 12 each function by creating anelectrostatic field between oscillator input loop 54 and detector outputloop 56, which is affected by presence of a person near by, as a resultof capacitive coupling, . . . ”). It is a potential, non-rotationalelectric field. It is not necessarily coupled with any magnetic field.It is the electric field of a capacitor. It can be produced with asteady distribution of electric charges. Thus, it is not anelectromagnetic wave by definition but if the sensor is driven by avarying current, then it produces a quasistatic electric field in thespace between/near the plates of the capacitor.

[0041] Kithil declares that he uses a static electric field in hiscapacitance sensor. Thus, from the consideration above, one can concludethat Kithil's sensor cannot be treated as a wave sensor because thereare no actual electromagnetic waves but only a static electric field ofthe capacitor in the sensor system. However, this is not believed to bethe case. The Kithil system could not operate with a true staticelectric field because a steady system does not carry any information.Therefore, Kithil is forced to use an oscillator, causing an alternatecurrent in the capacitor and a reactive quasistatic electric field inthe space between the capacitor plates, and a detector to reveal aninformative change of the sensor capacitance caused by the presence ofan occupant (see FIG. 7 and its description). In this case, the systembecomes a “wave sensor” in the sense that it starts generating actualtime-varying electric field that certainly originates electromagneticwaves according to the definition above. That is, Kithil's sensor can betreated as a wave sensor regardless of the shape of the electric fieldthat it creates, a beam or a spread shape.

[0042] As follows from the Kithil patent, the capacitor sensor is likelya parametric system where the capacitance of the sensor is controlled byinfluence of the passenger body. This influence is transferred by meansof the near electromagnetic field (i.e., the wave-like process) couplingthe capacitor electrodes and the body. It is important to note that thesame influence takes place with a real static electric field also, thatis in absence of any wave phenomenon This would be a situation if therewere no oscillator in Kithil's system. However, such a system is notworkable and thus Kithil reverts to a dynamic system using time-varyingelectric fields.

[0043] Thus, although Kithil declares the coupling is due to a staticelectric field, such a situation is not realized in his system becausean alternating electromagnetic field (“quasi-wave”) exists in the systemdue to the oscillator. Thus, his sensor is actually a wave sensor, thatis, it is sensitive to a change of a wave field in the vehiclecompartment. This change is measured by measuring the change of itscapacitance. The capacitance of the sensor system is determined by theconfiguration of its electrodes, one of which is a human body, that is,the passenger inside of and the part which controls the electrodeconfiguration and hence a sensor parameter, the capacitance.

[0044] The physics definition of “wave” from Webster's EncyclopedicUnabridged Dictionary is: “11. Physics. A progressive disturbancepropagated from point to point in a medium or space without progress oradvance of the points themselves, . . . ”. In a capacitor, the time thatit takes for the disturbance (a change in voltage) to propagate throughspace, the dielectric and to the opposite plate is generally small andneglected but it is not zero. As the frequency driving the capacitorincreases and the distance separating the plates increases, thistransmission time as a percentage of the period of oscillation canbecome significant. Nevertheless, an observer between the plates willsee the rise and fall of the electric field much like a person standingin the water of an ocean. The presence of a dielectric body between theplates causes the waves to get bigger as more electrons flow to and fromthe plates of the capacitor. Thus, an occupant affects the magnitude ofthese waves which is sensed by the capacitor circuit. Thus, theelectromagnetic field is a material agent that carries information abouta passenger's position in both Kithil's and a beam-type electromagneticwave sensor.

[0045] The following definitions are applicable and are from theEncyclopedia Britannica:

[0046] “Electromagnetic Field”

[0047] “A property of space caused by the motion of an electric charge.A stationary charge will produce only an electric field in thesurrounding space. If the charge is moving, a magnetic field is alsoproduced. An electric field can be produced also by a changing magneticfield. The mutual interaction of electric and magnetic fields producesan electromagnetic field, which is considered as having its ownexistence in space apart from the charges or currents (a stream ofmoving charges) with which it may be related . . . ” (Copyright1994-1998 Encyclopedia Britannica)

[0048] “Displacement Current”

[0049] “. . . in electromagnetism, a phenomenon analogous to an ordinaryelectric current, posited to explain magnetic fields that are producedby changing electric fields. Ordinary electric currents, calledconduction currents, whether steady or varying, produce an accompanyingmagnetic field in the vicinity of the current. [ . . . ]

[0050] “As electric charges do not flow through the insulation from oneplate of a capacitor to the other, there is no conduction current;instead, a displacement current is said to be present to account for thecontinuity of the magnetic effects. In fact, the calculated size of thedisplacement current between the plates of a capacitor being charged anddischarged in an alternating-current circuit is equal to the size of theconduction current in the wires leading to and from the capacitor.Displacement currents play a central role in the propagation ofelectromagnetic radiation, such as light and radio waves, through emptyspace. A traveling, varying magnetic field is everywhere associated witha periodically changing electric field that may be conceived in terms ofa displacement current. Maxwell's insight on displacement current,therefore, made it possible to understand electromagnetic waves as beingpropagated through space completely detached from electric currents inconductors.” Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopedia Britannica

[0051] “Electromagnetic Radiation”

[0052] “. . . energy that is propagated through free space or through amaterial medium in the form of electromagnetic waves, such as radiowaves, visible light, and gamma rays. The term also refers to theemission and transmission of such radiant energy. [ . . . ]

[0053] “It has been established that time-varying electric fields caninduce magnetic fields and that time-varying magnetic fields can in likemanner induce electric fields. Because such electric and magnetic fieldsgenerate each other, they occur jointly, and together they propagate aselectromagnetic waves. An electromagnetic wave is a transverse wave inthat the electric field and the magnetic field at any point and time inthe wave are perpendicular to each other as well as to the direction ofpropagation. [ . . . ]

[0054] “Electromagnetic radiation has properties in common with otherforms of waves such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, andinterference. [ . . . ]” Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopedia Britannica

[0055] The main part of the Kithil “circuit means” is an oscillator,which is as necessary in the system as the capacitor itself to make thecapacitive coupling effect be detectable. An oscillator by naturecreates a time varying electric field in a capacitor or waves. Thesystem can operate as a sensor only if an alternating current flowsthrough the sensor capacitor, which, in fact, is a detector from whichan informative signal is acquired. Then this current (or, more exactly,integral of the current over time—charge) is measured and the result isa measure of the sensor capacitance value. The latter in turn depends onthe passenger presence that affects the magnitude of the waves thattravel between the plates of the capacitor making the Kithil sensor awave sensor by the definition herein.

[0056] An additional relevant definition is:

[0057] “Capacitive Coupling”

[0058] The transfer of energy from one circuit to another by means ofthe mutual capacitance between the circuits. (188) The coupling may bedeliberate or inadvertent. Capacitive coupling favors transfer of thehigher frequency components of a signal, whereas inductive couplingfavors lower frequency components, and conductive coupling favorsneither hugher nor lower frequency components.”http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-006 / 0842.htm

[0059] Another similarity between one embodiment of the sensor of thisinvention and the Kithil sensor is the use of a voltage-controlledoscillator (VCO).

[0060] 7. Ultrasonic Occupant Sensors

[0061] The ultrasonic system is the least expensive and potentiallyprovides less information than the optical or some radar systems due tothe delays resulting from the speed of sound and due to the wave lengthwhich is considerably longer than the optical (including infrared)systems. The longer wavelength limits the detail, which can be seen bythe system. In spite of these limitations, as shown below, ultrasonicscan provide sufficient timely information to permit the position andvelocity of an occupant to be accurately known and, when used with anappropriate pattern recognition system, it is capable of positivelydetermining the presence of a rear facing child seat. One patternrecognition system that has been used to identify a rear facing childseat is a neural networks and is similar to that described in theabove-referenced papers by Gorman et al.

[0062] 8. Occupant Location Based on Focusing

[0063] A focusing system, such as used on some camera systems, can beused to determine the initial position of an occupant but, in mostcases, it is too slow to monitor his position during a crash. This is aresult of the mechanical motions required to operate the lens focusingsystem, however, methods do exist that do not require mechanicalmotions. By itself it cannot determine the presence of a rear facingchild seat or of an occupant but when used with a charge-coupled or CMSOdevice plus some infrared illumination for vision at night, and anappropriate pattern recognition system, this becomes possible.Similarly, the use of three dimensional cameras based on modulated wavesor range-gated pulsed light methods combined with pattern recognitionsystems arc now possible based on the teachings of the inventionsdisclosed herein and the commonly assigned patents and patentapplications referenced above.

[0064] 9. Information About an Occupying Item

[0065] As discussed above, it is desirable to obtain information aboutan occupying item in a vehicle in order to control a component in thevehicle based on the characteristics of the occupying item. For example,if it were known that the occupying item is inanimate, an airbagdeployment system would generally be controlled to suppress deploymentof any airbags designed to protect passengers seated at the location ofthe inanimate object.

[0066] When the occupying item is human, in some instances theinformation about the occupying item can be the occupant's position,size and weight. Each of these properties can have an effect on thecontrol criteria of the component. One system for determining adeployment force of an air bag system in described in U.S. Pat. No.6,199,904 (Dosdall). This system provides a reflective surface in thevehicle seat that reflects microwaves transmitted from a microwaveemitter. The position, size and weight of a human occupant are said tobe determined by calibrating the microwaves detected by a detector afterthe microwaves have been reflected from the reflective surface and passthrough the occupant.

[0067] 10. Child Seat Detection Prior Art

[0068] With respect to prior art related to the detection of childrestraining seats, U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,348 (Blackburn et al.) describesmethod and apparatus for sensing a rearward facing child restrainingscat in which a child restraining seat identification tag is secured tothe child restraining seat and an antenna coil is energized to transmitan EMF field. The tag is made of an amorphous material that radiates areturn EMF signal that is received by the antenna coil. The systemdetermines whether a rear-facing child seat is present based on thepresence of the return EMF signal, which is received only if the tagmounted to bottom front of the child seat is within a certain distancefrom the antenna coil mounted in the back portion of the seat. Drawbacksof the system of Blackburn et al. are that a special tag must beincorporated into the child seat in order to detect the same, the systemcannot differentiate between other similarly tagged objects and thesystem relies on the proper placement of the tag on the child seat. Inother words, if the tag were to be improperly placed on the child seat,then the system would not accurately determine the presence andorientation of the same. Also, the system of Blackburn et al. does notgenerate, e g., via the antenna coil, a signal based on the contents ofthe seat which is different depending on the contents of the seat, i.e.,the signal for an adult occupant is different from the signal for aforward-facing child seat which is different from the signal for arear-facing child seat, etc., and analyze the same in order to determinewhether the contents of the seat include a child seat in a rear-facingposition. Rather, the ENIF field generated by the tag is the samesignal, and only the power output is varied. Thus, either no signal (noEMF field) will be generated representing the absence of a rear-facingchild seat or a signal (an EMF field) will be generated representing thepresence of a rear-facing child seat.

[0069] 11. Summary

[0070] From the above discussion, it can be seen that the addition ofsophisticated pattern recognition means to any of the illuminationand/or reception technologies for use in a motor vehicle permits thedevelopment of a host of new products, systems or capabilitiesheretofore not available and as described in more detail below.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0071] Briefly, the claimed inventions are methods and arrangements forobtaining information about an object in a vehicle. This determinationis used in various methods and arrangements for, for example,controlling occupant protection devices in the event of a vehicle crash.

[0072] The determination can also be used in various methods andarrangements for, controlling heating and air-conditioning systems tooptimize the comfort for any occupants, controlling an entertainmentsystem as desired by the occupants, controlling a glare preventiondevice for the occupants, preventing accidents by a driver who is unableto safely drive the vehicle and enabling an effective and optimalresponse in the event of a crash (either oral directions to becommunicated to the occupants or the dispatch of personnel to aid theoccupants) as well as many others. Thus, one objective of the inventionis to obtain information about occupancy of a vehicle before, duringand/or after a crash and convey this information to remotely situatedassistance personnel to optimize their response to a crash involving thevehicle and/or enable proper assistance to be rendered to the occupantsafter the crash.

[0073] Principle objects and advantages of the claimed invention are:

[0074] 1. To obtain information about an object in a vehicle usingresonators or reflectors arranged in association with the object, suchas the position of the object and the orientation of the object.

[0075] 2. To provide a system designed to determine the orientation of achild seat using resonators or reflectors arranged in connection withthe child seat.

[0076] 3. To provide a system designed to determine whether a seatbeltis in use using resonators and reflectors, for possible use in thecontrol of a safety device such as an airbag.

[0077] 4. To provide a system designed to determine the position of anoccupying item of a vehicle using resonators or reflectors, for possibleuse in the control of a safety device such as an airbag.

[0078] 5. To provide a system designed to determine the position of aseat using resonators or reflectors, for possible usc in the control ofa vehicular component or system which would be affected by differentseat positions.

[0079] In order to achieve these objects, a vehicle including a systemfor obtaining information about an object in the vehicle, comprises atleast one resonator or reflector arranged in association with theobject, each resonator emitting an energy signal upon receipt of asignal at an excitation frequency, a transmitter device for transmittingsignals at least at the excitation frequency of each resonator, anenergy signal detector for detecting the energy signal emitted by eachresonator upon receipt of the signal at the excitation frequency, and aprocessor coupled to the detector for obtaining information about theobject upon analysis of the energy signal detected by the detector.

[0080] The information obtained about the object may be a distancebetween each resonator and the detector, which positional information isuseful for controlling components in the vehicle such as the occupantrestraint or protection device

[0081] If the object is a seat, the information obtained about the seatmay be an indication of the position of the seat, the position of theback cushion of the seat, the position of the bottom cushion of theseat, the angular orientation of the seat, and other seat parameters.

[0082] The resonator(s) may be arranged within the object and may be aSAW device, antenna and/or RFID tag. When several resonators are used,each may be designed to emit an energy signal upon receipt of a signalat a different excitation frequency. The resonators may be tunedresonators including an acoustic cavity or a vibrating mechanicalelement.

[0083] If the object is a seatbelt, the information obtained about theseatbelt may be an indication of whether the seatbelt is in use and/orthe position of the seatbelt.

[0084] If the object is a child seat, the information obtained about thechild seat may be whether. the child seat is present and whether thechild seat is rear-facing, front-facing, etc. (i.e., its orientation).

[0085] If the object is a window of the vehicle, the informationobtained about the window may be an indication of whether the window isopen or closed, or the state of openness.

[0086] If the object is a door, a resonator may be arranged in a surfacefacing the door such that closure of the door prevents emission of theenergy signal from the resonator, whereby the information obtained aboutthe door is an indication of whether the door is open or closed.

[0087] In another embodiment, the vehicle comprises at least onereflector arranged in association with the object and arranged toreflect an energy signal, a transmitter for transmitting energy signalsin a direction of each of reflector, an energy signal detector fordetecting energy signals reflected by the reflector(s), and a processorcoupled to the detector for obtaining information about the object uponanalysis of the energy signal detected by the detector. The reflectormay be a parabolic-shaped reflector, a comer cube reflector, a cubearray reflector, an antenna reflector and other types of reflector orreflective devices. The transmitter may be an infrared laser system inwhich case, the reflector comprises an optical mirror.

[0088] The information obtained about the object may be a distancebetween each reflector and the detector, which positional information isuseful for controlling components in the vehicle such as the occupantrestraint or protection device. If the object is a seat, the informationobtained about the seat may be an indication of the position of thescat, the position of the back cushion of the seat, the position of thebottom cushion of the seat, the angular orientation of the seat, andother seat parameters. If the object is a seatbelt, the informationobtained about the seatbelt may be an indication of whether the seatbeltis in use and/or the position of the scatbelt. If the object is a childseat, the information obtained about the child seat may be whether thechild seat is present and whether the child scat is rear-facing,front-facing, etc. If the object is a window of the vehicle, theinformation obtained about the window may be an indication of whetherthe window is open or closed, or the state of openness. If the object isa door, a reflector may be arranged in a surface facing the door suchthat closure of the door prevents reflection of the energy signal fromthe reflector, whereby the information obtained about the door is anindication of whether the door is open or closed.

[0089] Another embodiment of a motor vehicle detection system to achievesome of the above-listed objects comprises at least one transmitter fortransmitting energy signals toward a target in a passenger compartmentof the vehicle, at least one reflector arranged in association with thetarget, and at least one detector for detecting energy signals reflectedby the reflector(s). A processor is optionally coupled to thedetector(s) for obtaining information about the target upon analysis ofthe energy signal detected by the detector(s).

[0090] Principle objects and advantages of other disclosed inventionsthat can be used in conjunction with the claimed invention are:

[0091] 6. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of amotor vehicle and to use this information to affect the operation ofanother vehicle system such as the entertainment system, airbag system,heating and air conditioning system, pedal adjustment system, mirroradjustment system, wireless data link system or cellular phone, amongothers.

[0092] 7. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat of amotor vehicle and then to determine his/her position and to use thisposition information to affect the operation of another vehicle system.

[0093] 8. To affect the vehicle entertainment system, e.g., thespeakers, based on a determination of the number, size and/or locationof various occupants or other objects within the vehicle passengercompartment.

[0094] 9. To determine the location of the ears of one or more vehicleoccupants and to use that information to control the entertainmentsystem, e.g., the speakers, so as to improve the quality of the soundreaching the occupants' ears through such methods as noise cancelingsound.

[0095] 10. To recognize the presence of a human on a particular seat ofa motor vehicle and then to determine his/her velocity relative to thepassenger compartment and to use this velocity information to affect theoperation of another vehicle system.

[0096] 11. To determine the position of a seat in the vehicle usingsensors remote from the seat and to use that information in conjunctionwith a memory system and appropriate actuators to position the seat to apredetermined location.

[0097] 12. To determine the position, velocity or size of an occupant ina motor vehicle and to utilize this information to control the rate ofgas generation, or the amount of gas generated, by an airbag inflatorsystem or otherwise control the flow of gas into or out of an airbag.

[0098] 13. To determine the fact that an occupant is not restrained by aseatbelt and therefore to modify the characteristics of the airbagsystem. This determination can be done either by monitoring the positionof the occupant or through the use of a resonating device placed on theshoulder belt portion of the seatbelt.

[0099] 14. To determine the presence and/or position of rear seatedoccupants in the vehicle and to use this information to affect theoperation of a rear seat protection airbag for frontal, rear or sideimpacts, or rollovers.

[0100] 15. To determine the presence and/or position of occupantsrelative to the side impact airbag systems and to use this informationto affect the operation of a side impact protection airbag system.

[0101] 16. To determine the openness of a vehicle window and to use thatinformation to affect another vehicle system.

[0102] 17. To determine the presence of an occupant's hand or otherobject in the path of a closing window and to affect the window closingsystem.

[0103] 18. To remotely determine the fact that a vehicle door is nottightly closed using an illumination transmitting and receiving systemsuch as one employing electromagnetic or acoustic waves.

[0104] 19. To determine the position of the shoulder of a vehicleoccupant and to use that information to control the seatbelt anchoragepoint.

[0105] 20. To determine the position of the rear of an occupant's headand to use that information to control the position of the headrest.

[0106] 21. To recognize the presence of a rear facing child seat on aparticular seat of a motor vehicle and to use this information to affectthe operation of another vehicle system such as the airbag system

[0107] 22. To determine the total number of occupants of a vehicle andin the event of an accident to transmit that information, as well asother information such as the condition of the occupants before, duringand/or after a crash, to a receiver remote from the vehicle, suchinformation may include images.

[0108] 23. To affect the vehicle heating, ventilation and airconditioning system based on a determination of the number, size andlocation of various occupants or other objects within the vehiclepassenger compartment.

[0109] 24. To determine the temperature of an occupant based on infraredradiation coming from that occupant and to use that information tocontrol the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

[0110] 25. To provide a vehicle interior monitoring system fordetermining the location of occupants within the vehicle and to includewithin the same system various electronics for controlling an airbagsystem.

[0111] 26. To determine the approximate location of the eyes of a driverand to use that information to control the position of the rear viewmirrors of the vehicle and/or adjust the seat.

[0112] 27. To monitor the position of the head and/or other parts of thevehicle driver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep orotherwise impaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle and to usethat information to affect another vehicle system.

[0113] 28. To monitor the position of the eyes or eyelids of the vehicledriver and determine whether the driver is falling asleep or otherwiseimpaired and likely to lose control of the vehicle, or is unconsciousafter an accident, and to use that information to affect another vehiclesystem.

[0114] 29. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupantand/or the direction of a light source such as the headlights of anoncoming vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed in such amanner as to reduce the intensity of the light striking the eyes of theoccupant.

[0115] 30. To determine the location of the eyes of a vehicle occupantand/or the direction of a light source such as the headlights of a rearapproaching vehicle or the sun and to cause a filter to be placed insuch a manner as to reduce the intensity of the light reflected from therear view mirrors and striking the eyes of the occupant.

[0116] 31. To recognize a particular driver based on such factors asfacial characteristics, physical appearance or other attributes and touse this information to control another vehicle system such as thevehicle ignition, a security system, seat adjustment, or maximumpermitted vehicle velocity, among others.

[0117] 32. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presenceand health state of any occupants in a vehicle and, optionally, to sendthis information by telematics to one or more remote sites. The presenceof the occupants may be determined using an animal life or heart beatsensors

[0118] 33. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether anyoccupants of the vehicle are breathing or breathing with difficulty byanalyzing the occupant's motion and, optionally, to send thisinformation by telematics to one or more remote sites.

[0119] 34. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether anyoccupants of the vehicle are breathing by analyzing the chemicalcomposition of the air/gas in the vehicle and, optionally, to send thisinformation by telematics to one or more remote sites.

[0120] 35. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether anyoccupants of the vehicle are conscious by analyzing movement of theireyes, eyelids or other parts and, optionally, to send this informationby telematics to one or more remote sites.

[0121] 36. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether anyoccupants of the vehicle are wounded to the extent that they arebleeding by analyzing air/gas in the vehicle and, optionally, to sendthis information by telematics to one or more remote sites.

[0122] 37. To provide an occupant sensor which determines the presenceand health state of any occupants in the vehicle by analyzing soundsemanating from the passenger compartment and, optionally, to send thisinformation by telematics to one or more remote sites. Such sounds canbe directed to a remote, manned site for consideration in dispatchingresponse personnel.

[0123] 38. To provide an occupant sensor which determines whether anyoccupants of the vehicle are moving using radar systems, such asmicropower impulse radar (MIR), which can also detect the heartbeats ofany occupants and, optionally, to send this information by telematics toone or more remote sites.

[0124] 39. To provide a vehicle monitoring system which provides aconmmunications channel between the vehicle (possibly throughmicrophones or speaker transducers distributed throughout the vehicle)and a manned assistance facility to enable communications with theoccupants after a crash or whenever the occupants are in need ofassistance (e.g., if the occupants are lost, then data forming maps as anavigational aid can be transmitted to the vehicle).

[0125] 40. To provide a vehicle monitoring system using modulatedradiation to aid in the determining of the distance from a transducer(either ultrasonic or electromagnetic) to an occupying item of avehicle.

[0126] 41. To provide a glare filter for a glare reduction system thatuses semiconducting or metallic (organic) polymers to provide a low costsystem, which may reside in the windshield, visor, mirror or specialdevice.

[0127] 42. To provide a very low cost monitoring and presence detectionsystem that uses the property that water in the near field of an antennachanges the antenna's loading or impedance matching or resonantproperties.

[0128] 43. To provide a glare filter based on electronic Venetianblinds, polarizers or spatial light monitors.

[0129] 44. To provide an interior monitoring system which providesthree-dimensional information about an occupying item from a singletransducer mounting location.

[0130] 45. To provide an interior monitoring system that utilizeseither/or the reflection, scattering, absorption or transmission ofwaves including capacitive or other field based sensors.

[0131] 46. To provide a windshield where a substantial part of the areais covered by a plastic electronics film for a display and/or glarecontrol.

[0132] 47. To provide a method of measuring the distance from a sensorto an occupant or part thereof using calculations based of the degree offocus of an image.

[0133] 48. To provide for a driver monitoring system using an imagingtransducer mounted on the rear view mirror.

[0134] 49. Using structured light to determine the distance to anoccupant from a transducer.

[0135] 50. To provide a single camera system that passes therequirements of FMVSS-208.

[0136] 51. To control a vehicle component using eye tracking techniques.

[0137] 52. To use a visor as a display and/or glare stopper.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0138] The following drawings are illustrative of embodiments of thesystem developed or adapted using the teachings of this invention andare not meant to limit the scope of the invention as encompassed by theclaims.

[0139]FIG. 1 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a rear facing child seat onthe front passenger seat and a preferred mounting location for anoccupant and rear facing child seat presence detector including anantenna field sensor and a resonator or reflector placed onto theforward most portion of the child seat.

[0140]FIG. 1A is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a rear facing child seat onthe front passenger seat having a resonator or reflector placed onto theforward most portion of the child seat.

[0141]FIG. 2 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle cellular or other telematicscommunication system including an antenna field sensor.

[0142]FIG. 2A is a diagram of one exemplifying embodiment of theinvention.

[0143]FIG. 3 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle heating and air conditioningsystem and including an antenna field sensor.

[0144]FIG. 4 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle airbag system and including anantenna field sensor.

[0145]FIG. 5 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle entertainment system.

[0146]FIG. 5A is a schematic representation of a vehicle in which theentertainment system utilizes hypersonic sound.

[0147]FIG. 6 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver and a preferredmounting location for an occupant identification system and including anantenna field sensor.

[0148]FIG. 7A is a functional block diagram of the ultrasonic imagingsystem illustrated in FIG. 1 using a microprocessor, DSP or fieldprogrammable gate array (FGPA).

[0149]FIG. 7B is a functional block diagram of the ultrasonic imagingsystem illustrated in FIG. 1 using an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC).

[0150]FIG. 8 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a box on the frontpassenger seat and a preferred mounting location for an occupant andrear facing child seat presence detector and including an antenna fieldsensor.

[0151]FIG. 9 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver and a preferredmounting location for an occupant position sensor for use in sideimpacts and also of a rear of occupant's head locator for use with aheadrest adjustment system to reduce whiplash injuries in rear impactcrashes.

[0152]FIG. 10 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a front passenger and apreferred mounting location for an occupant head detector and apreferred mounting location of an adjustable microphone and speakers andincluding an antenna field sensor in the headrest for a rear ofoccupant's head locator for use with a headrest adjustment system toreduce whiplash injuries, in particular, in rear impact crashes.

[0153]FIG. 11 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a subjectvehicle and an oncoming vehicle, showing the headlights of the oncomingvehicle and the passenger compartment of the subject vehicle, containingdetectors of the driver's eyes and detectors for the headlights of theoncoming vehicle and the selective filtering of the light of theapproaching vehicle's headlights through the use of electro-chronicglass, organic or metallic semiconductor polymers or electrophericparticulates (SPD) in the windshield.

[0154]FIG. 11A is an enlarged view of the section 11A in FIG. 11.

[0155]FIG. 12 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleand a following vehicle showing the headlights of the following vehicleand the passenger compartment of the leading vehicle containing a driverand a preferred mounting location for driver eyes and following vehicleheadlight detectors and the selective filtering of the light of thefollowing vehicle's headlights through the use of electrochromic glass,SPD glass or equivalent, in the rear view mirror.

[0156]FIG. 12A is an enlarged view of the section designated 12A in FIG.12.

[0157]FIG. 12B is an enlarged view of the section designated 12B in FIG.12A.

[0158]FIG. 13 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicleshowing the passenger compartment containing a driver, a shoulder heightsensor and a seatbelt anchorage adjustment system.

[0159]FIG. 14 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of a seat inthe passenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of resonators orreflectors to determine the position of the seat.

[0160]FIG. 15 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of thepassenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of resonators orreflectors to determine the position of the driver seatbelt.

[0161]FIG. 16 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of thepassenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of a resonator orreflector to determine the extent of opening of the driver window and ofa system for determining the presence of an object, such as the hand ofan occupant, in the window opening.

[0162]FIG. 16A is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of thepassenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of a resonator orreflector to determine the extent of opening of the driver window and ofanother system for determining the presence of an object, such as thehand of an occupant, in the window opening.

[0163]FIG. 17 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed of thepassenger compartment of a vehicle showing the use of a resonator orreflector to determine the extent of opening position of the driver sidedoor.

[0164]FIG. 18 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and the vehicle security system.

[0165]FIG. 19 is a side view with parts cutaway and removed showingschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention and an instrument panel mounted inattentivenesswarning light or buzzer and reset button.

[0166]FIG. 20 is a block diagram of an antenna-based near field objectdiscriminator.

[0167]FIG. 21 illustrates the interior of a passenger compartment with arear view mirror, a camera for viewing the eyes of the driver and alarge generally transparent visor for glare filtering.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0168] 1. Basic System

[0169] Referring to the accompanying drawings wherein the same referencenumerals refer to the same or similar elements, FIG. 1 is a side view,with parts cutaway and removed of a vehicle showing the passengercompartment containing a rear facing child seat 110 on a front passengerseat 120 and a preferred mounting location for a first embodiment of avehicle interior monitoring system in accordance with the invention. Theinterior monitoring system is capable of detecting the presence of anoccupant and the rear facing child seat 110 (or more generally, a childseat and its orientation). In this embodiment, three transducers 131,132 and 133 are used alone, or, alternately in combination with one ortwo antenna near field monitoring sensors or transducers, 140 and 141,although any number of wave-transmitting transducers orradiation-receiving receivers may be used. Such transducers or receiversmay be of the type that emit or receive a continuous signal, a timevarying signal or a spatial varying signal such as in a scanning system.One particular type of radiation-receiving receiver for use in theinvention is a receiver capable of receiving electromagnetic waves.

[0170] In an ultrasonic embodiment, transducer 132 transmits ultrasonicenergy toward the front passenger seat, which is modified, in this caseby the occupying item of the passenger seat, for example the rear facingchild seat 110, and the modified waves are received by the transducers131 and 133. Modification of the ultrasonic energy may constitutereflection of the ultrasonic energy back by the occupying item of theseat. The waves received by transducers 131 and 133 vary with timedepending on the shape, location and size of the object occupying thepassenger seat, in this case the rear facing child seat 110. Eachdifferent occupying item will reflect back waves having a differentpattern. Also, the pattern of waves received by transducer 131 willdiffer from the pattern received by transducer 133 in view of itsdifferent mounting location. In some systems, this difference permitsthe determination of location of the reflecting surface (for example therear facing child seat 110) through triangulation. Through the use oftwo transducers 131, 133, a sort of stereographic image is received bythe two transducers and recorded for analysis by processor 101, which iscoupled to the transducers 131, 132, 133.

[0171] Transducer 132 can also be a source of electromagnetic radiation,such as an LED, and transducers 131 and 133 can be CMOS, CCD imagers orother devices sensitive to electromagnetic radiation or fields. This“image” or return signal will differ for each object that is placed onthe vehicle seat and it will also change for each position of aparticular object and for each position of the vehicle seat. Elements131, 132, 133, although described as transducers, are representative ofany type of component used in a wave-based or electric field analysistechnique, including, e.g., a transmitter, antenna or a capacitor plate.

[0172] Transducers 140, 141 and 146 are antennas placed in the seat andinstrument panel such that the presence of an object, particularly awater-containing object such as a human, disturbs the near field of theantenna. This disturbance can be detected by various means such as withMicrel parts MICREF102 and MICREF104, which have a built in antennaauto-tune circuit. These parts cannot be used as is and it is necessaryto redesign the chips to allow the auto-tune information to be retrievedfrom the chip.

[0173] The “image” recorded from each ultrasonic transducer/receiver(transceiver), for ultrasonic systems, is actually a time series ofdigitized data of the amplitude of the received signal versus time.Since there are two receivers in this example, two time series areobtained which are processed by processor 101. Processor 101 may includeelectronic circuitry and associated embedded software. Processor 101constitutes one form of generating mechanism in accordance with theinvention that generates information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment based on the waves received by the transducers131, 132, 133. This three-transducer system is for illustration purposesonly and the preferred system will usually have at least threetransceivers that may operate at the same or at different frequenciesand each may receive reflected waves from itself or any one or more ofthe other transceivers or sources of radiation.

[0174] Other types of transducers can be used along with the transducers131, 132, 133 or separately and all are contemplated by this invention.Such transducers include other wave devices such as radar or electronicfield sensing such as described in Kithil U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,366,241,5,602,734, 5,691,693, 5,802,479, 5,844,486, Rittmueller U.S. Pat. No.5,948,031, Kithil U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,014,602, and 6,275,146 all of whichare incorporated herein by reference. Another technology, for example,uses the fact that the content of the near field of an antenna affectsthe resonant tuning of the antenna. Examples of such a device are shownas antennas 140, 141 and 146 in FIG. 1. By going to lower frequencies,the near field range is increased and also at such lower frequencies, aferrite-type antenna could be used to minimize the size of the antenna.Other antennas that may be applicable for a particular implementationinclude dipole, microstrip, patch, yagi etc. The frequency transmittedby the antenna can be swept and the (VSWR) voltage and current in theantenna feed circuit can be measured. Classification by frequency domainis then possible. That is, if the circuit is tuned by the antenna, thefrequency can be measured to determine the object in the field.

[0175] An alternate system is shown in FIG. 2, which is a side viewshowing schematically the interface between the vehicle interiormonitoring system of this invention and the vehicle cellular or othercommunication system. In this view, an adult occupant 210 is shownsitting on the front passenger seat 220 and two transducers 231 and 232are used to determine the presence (or absence) of the occupant on thatseat 220. One of the transducers 232 in this case acts as both atransmitter and receiver while transducer 231 acts only as a receiver.Alternately, transducer 231 could serve as both a transmitter andreceiver or the transmitting function could be alternated between thetwo devices. Also, in many cases more that two transmitters andreceivers are used and in still other cases other types of sensors, suchas weight, seatbelt tension sensor or switch, heartbeat, self tuningantennas (140, 141), motion and seat and seatback position sensors, arealso used alone or in combination with the radiation sensors 231 and232. As is also the case in FIG. 1, the transducers 231 and 232 areattached to the vehicle embedded in the A-pillar and headliner trim,where their presence is disguised, and are connected to processor 101that may also hidden in the trim as shown or elsewhere. The A-pillar isthe roof support pillar that is closest to the front of the vehicle andwhich, in addition to supporting the roof, also supports the frontwindshield and the front door. Naturally, other mounting locations canalso be used and in most cases preferred as disclosed in Varga et. al.U.S. Pat. No. RE 37,260.

[0176] More specifically, FIG. 1A shows a transducer 231′ mounted in theheadliner of the vehicle and a transducer 231″ arranged in the seat.Transducers 231′, 231″ each include at least a receiver component forreceiving waves which can be processed to determine the presence orabsence of an occupant on the seat, including the presence or absence ofa child seat and optionally, its orientation. Transducers 231′,231″ canalso be used for any other purpose disclosed herein, e.g, obtaininginformation about the occupant, such as position, movement oridentification.

[0177] The cellular phone system, or other telematics communicationdevice, is shown schematically by box 240 and outputs to an antenna250A. The phone system or telematics communication device 240 can becoupled to the vehicle interior monitoring system in accordance with anyof the embodiments disclosed herein and serves to establish acommunications channel with one or more remote assistance facilities,such as an EMS facility or dispatch facility from which emergencyresponse personnel are dispatched.

[0178] The transducers 231 and 232 in conjunction with the patternrecognition hardware and software described below, which is implementedin processor 101 and is packaged on a printed circuit board or flexcircuit along with the transducers 231 and 232, determine the presenceof an occupant within a few seconds after the vehicle is started.Similar systems located to monitor the remaining seats in the vehicle,also determine the presence of occupants at the other seating locationsand this result is stored in the computer memory, which is part of eachmonitoring system processor 101. Processor 101 thus enables a count ofthe number of occupants in the vehicle to be obtained by addition of thedetermined presences of occupants by the transducers associated witheach seating location, and in fact can be designed to perform such anaddition.

[0179] 2. Accidents, Health Monitoring and Telematics

[0180] In the event of an accident, the electronic system associatedwith the telematics system interrogates the various interior monitoringsystem memories in processor 101 and arrives at a count of the number ofoccupants in the vehicle, and, in more sophisticated systems, even makesa determination as to whether each occupant was wearing a seatbelt andif he or she is moving after the accident or the health state of one ormore of the occupants as described above, for example. The telematicscommunication system then automatically notifies an EMS operator (suchas 911, OnStar® or equivalent) and the information obtained from theinterior monitoring systems is forwarded so that a determination can bemade as to the number of ambulances and other equipment to send to theaccident site. Vehicles having the capability of notifying EMS in theevent one or more airbags deployed are now in service but are notbelieved to use any of the innovative interior monitoring systemsdescribed herein. Such vehicles will also have a system, such as theglobal positioning system, which permits the vehicle to determine itslocation and to forward this information to the EMS operator.

[0181] Thus, in basic embodiments of the invention, wave orenergy-receiving transducers are arranged in the vehicle at appropriatelocations, trained if necessary depending on the particular embodiment(as described below), and function to determine whether a life form ispresent in the vehicle and if so, how many life forms are present, wherethey are located and their approximate sizes and perhaps some vitalsigns to indicate their health or injury state (breathing, pulse rateetc.). A determination can also be made using the transducers as towhether the life forms are humans, or more specifically, adults, childin child seats, etc. As noted above and below, this is possible usingpattern recognition techniques. Moreover, the processor or processorsassociated with the transducers can be trained to determine the locationof the life forms, either periodically or continuously or possibly onlyimmediately before, during and after a crash. The location of the lifeforms can be as general or as specific as necessary depending on thesystem requirements. For example, a determination can be made that ahuman is situated on the driver's seat in a normal position (general) ora determination can be made that a human is situated on the driver'sseat and is leaning forward and/or to the side at a specific angle aswell as the position of his or her extremities and head and chest(specific). The degree of detail is limited by several factors,including among others the number and position of transducers andtraining of the pattern recognition algorithm.

[0182] In addition to the use of transducers to determine the presenceand location of occupants in a vehicle, other sensors could also beused. For example, a heartbeat sensor, which determines the number andpresence of heartbeats, can also be arranged in the vehicle.Conventional heartbeat sensors can be adapted to differentiate between aheartbeat of an adult, a heartbeat of a child and a heartbeat of ananimal. As its name implies, a heartbeat sensor detects a heartbeat, andthe magnitude thereof, of a human occupant of the seat, if such a humanoccupant is present. The output of the heartbeat sensor is input to theprocessor of the interior monitoring system. One heartbeat sensor foruse in the invention may be of the types as disclosed in McEwan in U.S.Pat. Nos. 5,573,012 and 5,766,208, which are incorporated herein intheir entirety by reference. The heartbeat sensor can be positioned atany convenient position relative to the seats where occupancy is beingmonitored. A preferred location is within the vehicle seatback.

[0183] This type of micropower impulse radar (MIR) sensor is notbelieved to have been used in an interior monitoring system heretofore.It can be used to determine the motion of an occupant and thus candetermine his or her heartbeat (as evidenced by motion of the chest),for example. Such an MIR sensor can also be arranged to detect motion ina particular area in which the occupant's chest would most likely besituated or could be coupled to an arrangement which determines thelocation of the occupant's chest and then adjusts the operational fieldof the MIR sensor based on the determined location of the occupant'schest. A motion sensor utilizing a micro-power impulse radar (MIR)system as disclosed, for example, in McEwan (U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,070,which is incorporated herein by reference), as well as many otherpatents by the same inventor. Motion sensing is accomplished bymonitoring a particular range from the sensor as disclosed in thatpatent. MIR is one form of radar that has applicability to occupantsensing and can be mounted at various locations in the vehicle. Otherforms include, among others, ultra wideband (UWB) by the Time DomainCorporation and noise radar (NR) by Professor Konstantin Lukin of theNational Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Institute of Radiophysics andElectronics. Radar has an advantage over ultrasonic sensors in that datacan be acquired at a higher speed and thus the motion of an occupant canbe more easily tracked. The ability to obtain returns over the entireoccupancy range is somewhat more difficult than with ultrasoundresulting in a more expensive system overall. MIR, UWB or NR haveadditional advantages in lack of sensitivity to temperature variationand has a comparable resolution to about 40 kHz ultrasound. Resolutioncomparable to higher frequency is of course possible using millimeterwaves, for example. Additionally, multiple MIR, UWB or NR sensors can beused when high speed tracking of the motion of an occupant during acrash is required since they can be individually pulsed withoutinterfering with each other through time division, code division orother multiplexing schemes.

[0184] The maximum acoustic frequency that is practical to use foracoustic imaging in the acoustic systems herein is about 40 to 160kilohertz (kHz). The wavelength of a 50 kHz acoustic wave is about 0.6cm, which is too coarse to determine the fine features of a person'sface, for example. It is well understood by those skilled in the artthat features that are smaller than the wavelength of the irradiatingradiation cannot be distinguished. Similarly, the wavelength of commonradar systems varies from about 0.9 cm (for 33,000 MHz K band) to 133 cm(for 225 MHz P band), which is also too coarse for person identificationsystems. Millimeter wave and submillimeter wave radar can of course emitand receive waves considerably smaller. Microwave radar and inparticular Micropower Impulse Radar (MIR) as discussed above isparticularly useful for occupant detection and especially the motion ofoccupants such as motion caused by heartbeats and breathing. Forsecurity purposes, for example, MIR can be used to detect the presenceof weapons on a person that might be approaching a vehicle such as abus, truck or train and thus provide a warning of a potential terroristthreat. MIR is reflected by edges, joints and boundaries and through thetechnique of range gating, particular slices in space can be observed.Millimeter wave radar, particularly in the passive mode, can also beused to locate life forms because they naturally emit waves atparticular frequencies such as 3 mm. A passive image of such a personwill also show the presence of concealed weapons as they block thisradiation. Similarly, active millimeter wave radar reflects off ofmetallic objects but is absorbed by the water in a life form Theabsorption property can be used by placing a radar receiver or reflectorbehind the occupant and measuring the shadow caused by the absorption.The reflective property of weapons including plastics can be used asabove to detect possible terrorist threats. Finally, the use ofsubmillimeter waves again using a detector or reflector on the otherside of the occupant can be used not only to determine the density ofthe occupant but also some measure of its chemical composition as thechemical properties alter the pulse shape. Such waves are more readilyabsorbed by water than by plastic. From the above discussion, it can beseen that there are advantages of using different frequencies of radarfor different purposes and, in some cases, a combination of frequenciesis most useful. This combination occurs naturally with noise radar (NR),ultra-wideband radar (UWB) and MIR and these technologies are mostappropriate for occupant detection when using electromagnetic radiationat longer wavelengths than visible light and IR.

[0185] An alternative way to determine motion of the occupant(s) is tomonitor the weight distribution of the occupant whereby changes inweight distribution after an accident would be highly suggestive ofmovement of the occupant A system for determining the weightdistribution of the occupants can be integrated or otherwise arranged inthe seats 120, 220 of the vehicle and several patents and publicationsdescribe such systems.

[0186] More generally, any sensor that determines the presence andhealth state of an occupant can also be integrated into the vehicleinterior monitoring system in accordance with the invention. Forexample, a sensitive motion sensor can determine whether an occupant isbreathing and a chemical sensor can determine the amount of carbondioxide, or the concentration of carbon dioxide, in the air in thevehicle, which can be correlated to the health state of the occupant(s).The motion sensor and chemical sensor can be designed to have a fixedoperational field situated near the occupant. In the alternative, themotion sensor and chemical sensor can be adjustable and adapted toadjust their operational field in conjunction with a determination by anoccupant position and location sensor that would determine the locationof specific parts of the occupant's body such as his or her chest ormouth. Furthermore, an occupant position and location sensor can be usedto determine the location of the occupant's eyes and determine whetherthe occupant is conscious, that is, whether his or her eyes are open orclosed or moving.

[0187] Chemical sensors can also be used to detect whether there isblood present in the vehicle such as after an accident. Additionally,microphones can detect whether there is noise in the vehicle caused bygroaning, yelling, etc., and transmit any such noise through thecellular or similar connection to a remote listening facility using atelematics communication system such as operated by OnStar™.

[0188]FIG. 2A shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of theinvention including a system for determining the presence and healthstate of any occupants of the vehicle and a telecommunications link.This embodiment includes means for determining the presence of anyoccupants 10 which may take the form of a heartbeat sensor, chemicalsensor or motion sensor as described above and means for determining thehealth state of any occupants 12. The latter means may be integratedinto the means for determining the presence of any occupants using thesame or different component. The presence determining means 10 mayencompass a dedicated presence determination device associated with eachseating location in the vehicle, or at least sufficient presencedetermination devices having the ability to determine the presence of anoccupant at each seating location in the vehicle. Further, means fordetermining the location, and optionally velocity, of the occupants orone or more parts thereof 14 are provided and may be any conventionaloccupant position sensor or preferably, one of the occupant positionsensors as described herein such as those utilizing waves such aselectromagnetic radiation or fields such as capacitance sensors or asdescribed in the current assignee's patents and patent applicationsreferenced above.

[0189] A processor 16 is coupled to the presence determining means 10,the health state determining means 12 and the location determining means14. A communications unit 18 is coupled to the processor 16. Theprocessor 16 and/or communications unit 18 can also be coupled tomicrophones 20 distributed throughout the vehicle and includevoice-processing circuitry to enable the occupant(s) to effect vocalcontrol of the processor 16, communications unit 18 or any coupledcomponent or oral communications via the communications unit 18. Theprocessor 16 is also coupled to another vehicular system, component orsubsystem 22 and can issue control commands to effect adjustment of theoperating conditions of the system, component or subsystem. Such asystem, component or subsystem can be the heating or air-conditioningsystem, the entertainment system, an occupant restraint device such asan airbag, a glare prevention system, etc. Also, a positioning system24, such as a GPS or differential GPS system, could be coupled to theprocessor 16 and provides an indication of the absolute position of thevehicle.

[0190] The communications unit 18 performs the function of enablingestablishment of a communications channel to a remote facility toreceive information about the occupancy of the vehicle as determined bythe presence determining means 10, occupant health state determiningmeans 12 and/or occupant location determining means 14 Thecommunications unit 18 thus can be designed to transmit over asufficiently large range and at an established frequency monitored bythe remote facility, which may be an EMS facility, sheriff department,or fire department.

[0191] In normal use (other than after a crash), the presencedetermining means 10 determine whether any human occupants are present,i.e., adults or children, and the location determining means 14determines the occupant's location. The processor 16 receives signalsrepresentative of the presence of occupants and their location anddetermines whether the vehicular system, component or subsystem 22 canbe modified to optimize its operation for the specific arrangement ofoccupants. For example, if the processor 16 determines that only thefront seats in the vehicle are occupied, it could control the heatingsystem to provide heat only through vents situated to provide heat forthe front-seated occupants.

[0192] Another vehicular telematics system, component or subsystem is anavigational aid, such as a route guidance display or map. In this case,the position of the vehicle as determined by the positioning system 24is conveyed through processor 16 to the communications unit 18 to aremote facility and a map is transmitted from this facility to thevehicle to be displayed on the route display. If directions are needed,a request for such directions can be entered into an input unit 26associated with the processor 16 and transmitted to the facility. Datafor the display map and/or vocal instructions can then be transmittedfrom this facility to the vehicle.

[0193] Moreover, using this embodiment, it is possible to remotelymonitor the health state of the occupants in the vehicle and mostimportantly, the driver. The health state determining means 12 may beused to detect whether the driver's breathing is erratic or indicativeof a state in which the driver is dozing off. The health statedetermining means 12 can also include a breath-analyzer to determinewhether the driver's breath contains alcohol. In this case, the healthstate of the driver is relayed through the processor 16 and thecommunications unit 18 to the remote facility and appropriate action canbe taken. For example, it would be possible to transmit a command to thevehicle to activate an alarm or illuminate a warning light or if thevehicle is equipped with an automatic guidance system and ignitionshut-off, to cause the vehicle to come to a stop on the shoulder of theroadway or elsewhere out of the traffic stream. The alarm, warninglight, automatic guidance system and ignition shut-off are thusparticular vehicular components or subsystems represented by 22.

[0194] In use after a crash, the presence determining means 10, healthstate determining means 12 and location determining means 14 obtainreadings from the passenger compartment and direct such readings to theprocessor 16. The processor 16 analyzes the information and directs orcontrols the transmission of the information about the occupant(s) to aremote, manned facility. Such information could include the number andtype of occupants, i.e., adults, children, infants, whether any of theoccupants have stopped breathing or are breathing erratically, whetherthe occupants are conscious (as evidenced by, e.g., eye motion), whetherblood is present (as detected by a chemical sensor) and whether theoccupants are making sounds. The determination of the number ofoccupants is obtained from the presence determining mechanism 10, i.e.,the number of occupants whose presence is detected is the number ofoccupants in the passenger compartment. The determination of the statusof the occupants, i.e., whether they are moving is performed by thehealth state determining mechanism 12, such as the motion sensors,heartbeat sensors, chemical sensors, etc. Moreover, the communicationslink through the communications unit 18 can be activated immediatelyafter the crash to enable personnel at the remote facility to initiatecommunications with the vehicle.

[0195] 3. Pattern Recognition

[0196] When different objects are placed on the front passenger seat,the two images (here “image” is used to represent any form of signal)from transducers 131, 133 (FIG. 1) are different but there are alsosimilarities between all images of rear facing child seats, for example,regardless of where on the vehicle seat it is placed and regardless ofwhat company manufactured the child seat. Alternately, there will besimilarities between all images of people sitting on the seat regardlessof what they are wearing, their age or size. The problem is to find theset of “rules” or algorithm that differentiates the images of one typeof object from the images of other types of objects, for example whichdifferentiate the adult occupant images from the rear facing child seatimages. The similarities of these images for various child seats arefrequently not obvious to a person looking at plots of the time seriesfrom ultrasonic sensors and thus computer algorithms are developed tosort out the various patterns. For a more detailed discussion of patternrecognition see U.S. Pat. No. RE37260 to Varga et. al., which isincorporated herein by reference.

[0197] The determination of these rules is important to the patternrecognition techniques used in this invention. In general, threeapproaches have been useful, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic andartificial neural networks including modular neural networks. Othertypes of pattern recognition techniques may also be used, such as sensorfusion as disclosed in Corrado U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,482,314, 5,890,085, and6,249,729, which are incorporated herein by reference. In someimplementations of this invention, such as the determination that thereis an object in the path of a closing window using acoustics asdescribed below, the rules are sufficiently obvious that a trainedresearcher can look at the returned acoustic signals and devise analgorithm to make the required determinations. In others, such as thedetermination of the presence of a rear facing child seat or of anoccupant, artificial neural networks are used to determine the rules.Neural network software for determining the pattern recognition rules isavailable from the NeuralWare Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pa. Modularneural network software is available from International ScientificResearch, Inc (ISR) of Romeo, Mich.

[0198] The system used in a preferred implementation of this inventionfor the determination of the presence of a rear facing child seat, of anoccupant or of an empty seat, for example, is the artificial neuralnetwork, which is also commonly referred to as a trained neural network.In this case, the network operates on the two returned signals as sensedby transducers 131 and 133. Through a training session, the system istaught to differentiate between the different cases. This is done byconducting a large number of experiments where a selection of thepossible child seats are placed in a large number of possibleorientations on the front passenger seat. Similarly, a sufficientlylarge number of experiments are run with human occupants and with boxes,bags of groceries and other objects (both inanimate and animate). Foreach experiment with different objects and the same object in differentpositions, the returned signals from the transducers 131, 133, forexample, are associated with the identification of the occupant in theseat or the empty seat and information about the occupant such as itsorientation if it is a child seat and/or position. Data sets are formedfrom the returned signals and the identification and information aboutthe occupant or the absence of an occupant. The data sets are input intoa neural network-generating program that creates a trained neuralnetwork that can, upon receiving input of two returned signals from thetransducers 131, 133, provide an output of the identification andinformation about the occupant most likely situated in the seat orascertained the existence of an empty seat. Sometimes as many as1,000,000 such experiments are run before the neural network issufficiently trained and tested so that it can differentiate among theseveral cases and output the correct decision with a very highprobability. Of course, it must be realized that a neural network canalso be trained to differentiate among additional cases, for example, aforward facing child seat.

[0199] Once the network is determined, it is possible to examine theresult using tools supplied by NeuralWare or ISR, for example, todetermine the rules that were arrived at by the trial and error process.In that case, the rules can then be programmed into a microprocessorresulting in a rule-based system. Alternately, a neural computer can beused to implement the net directly. In either case, the implementationcan be carried out by those skilled in the art of pattern recognition.If a microprocessor is used, an additional memory device may be requiredto store the data from the analog to digital converters that digitizethe data from the receiving transducers. On the other hand, if a neuralnetwork computer is used, the analog signal can be fed directly from thetransducers to the neural network input nodes and an intermediate memoryis not required. Memory of some type is needed to store the computerprograms in the case of the microprocessor system and if the neuralcomputer is used for more than one task, a memory is needed to store thenetwork specific values associated with each task.

[0200] 4. Additions to Basic System

[0201] 4.1 Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning

[0202] The control of the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning(HVAC) system can also be a part of the system although alone it wouldprobably not justify the implementation of an interior monitoring systemat least until the time comes when electronic heating and coolingsystems replace the conventional systems now used. Nevertheless, if themonitoring system is present, it can be used to control the HVAC for asmall increment in cost. The advantage of such a system is that sincemost vehicles contain only a single occupant, there is no need to directheat or air conditioning to unoccupied seats. This permits the mostrapid heating or cooling for the driver when the vehicle is firststarted and he or she is alone without heating or cooling unoccupiedseats. Since the HVAC system does consume energy, an energy saving alsoresults by only heating and cooling the driver when he or she is alone.

[0203]FIG. 3 shows a side view of a vehicle passenger compartmentshowing schematically an interface 260 between the vehicle interiormonitoring system of this invention and the vehicle heating and airconditioning system. In addition to the transducers 231 and 232, whichat least in this embodiment are preferably acoustic transducers, aninfrared sensor 234 is also shown mounted in the A-pillar and isconstructed and operated to monitor the temperature of the occupant. Theoutput from each of the transducers is fed into processor 101 that is inturn connected to interface 260. In this manner, the HVAC control isbased on the occupant's temperature rather than that of the ambient airin the vehicle, as well as the determined presence of the occupant viatransducers 231, 232 as described above. This also permits each vehicleoccupant to be independently monitored and the HVAC system to beadjusted for each occupant either based on a set temperature for alloccupants or, alternately, each occupant could be permitted to set hisor her own preferred temperature through adjusting a control knob shownschematically as 250 in FIG. 3. Since the monitoring system is alreadyinstalled in the vehicle with its associated electronics includingprocessor 101, the infrared sensor can be added with little additionalcost and can share the processing unit.

[0204] 4.2 Control of Passive Restraints

[0205] The use of the vehicle interior monitoring system to control thedeployment of an airbag is discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No.5,653,462 referenced above. In that case, the control is based on theuse of a pattern recognition system, such as a neural network, todifferentiate between the occupant and his extremities in order toprovide an accurate determination of the position of the occupantrelative to the airbag. If the occupant is sufficiently close to theairbag module that he is more likely to be injured by the deploymentitself than by the accident, the deployment of the airbag is suppressed.This process is carried further by the interior monitoring systemdescribed herein in that the nature or identity of the object occupyingthe vehicle seat is used to contribute to the airbag deploymentdecision. FIG. 4 shows a side view illustrating schematically theinterface between the vehicle interior monitoring system of thisinvention and the vehicle airbag system 270.

[0206] In this embodiment, an ultrasonic transducer 232 transmits aburst of ultrasonic waves that travel to the occupant where they arereflected back to transducers or receptors/receivers 231 and 232. Thetime period required for the waves to travel from the generator andreturn is used to determine the distance from the occupant to the airbagas described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,462, i.e., andthus may also be used to determine the position or location of theoccupant. In the case of this invention, however, the portion of thereturn signal that represents the occupants' head or chest, has beendetermined based on pattern recognition techniques such as a neuralnetwork. The relative velocity of the occupant toward the airbag canthen be determined, from successive position measurements, which permitsa sufficiently accurate prediction of the time when the occupant wouldbecome proximate to the airbag. By comparing the occupant relativevelocity to the integral of the crash deceleration pulse, adetermination as to whether the occupant is being restrained by aseatbelt can also be made which then can affect the airbag deploymentinitiation decision. Alternately, the mere knowledge that the occupanthas moved a distance that would not be possible if he were wearing aseatbelt gives information that he is not wearing one.

[0207] A more detailed discussion of this process and of the advantagesof the various technologies, such as acoustic or electromagnetic, can befound in SAE paper 940527, “Vehicle Occupant Position Sensing” by Breedet al, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety to theextent the disclosure of this paper is necessary. In this paper, it isdemonstrated that the time delay required for acoustic waves to travelto the occupant and return does not prevent the use of acoustics forposition measurement of occupants during the crash event. For positionmeasurement and for many pattern recognition applications, ultrasonicsis the preferred technology due to the lack of adverse health effectsand the low cost of ultrasonic systems compared with either camera,laser or radar based systems. The main limiting feature of ultrasonicsis the wavelength, which places a limitation on the size of featuresthat can be discerned. Optical systems, for example, are required whenthe identification of particular individuals is required.

[0208] 4.3 Entertainment and Hypersonic Sound

[0209] It is well known among acoustics engineers that the quality ofsound coming from an entertainment system can be substantially affectedby the characteristics and contents of the space in which it operatesand the surfaces surrounding that space. When an engineer is designing asystem for an automobile he or she has a great deal of knowledge aboutthat space and of the vehicle surfaces surrounding it. He or she haslittle knowledge of how many occupants are likely to be in the vehicleon a particular day, however, and therefore the system is a compromise.If the system knew the number and position of the vehicle occupants, andmaybe even their size, then adjustments could be made in the systemoutput and the sound quality improved. FIG. 5, therefore, illustratesschematically the interface between the vehicle interior monitoringsystem of this invention, i.e., transducers 231, 232 and processor 101which operate as set forth above, and the vehicle entertainment system280. The particular design of the entertainment system that uses theinformation provided by the monitoring system can be determined by thoseskilled in the appropriate art. Perhaps in combination with this system,the quality of the sound system can be measured by the audio systemitself either by using the speakers as receiving units also or throughthe use of special microphones. The quality of the sound can then beadjusted according to the vehicle occupancy and the reflectivity of thevehicle occupants. If, for example, certain frequencies are beingreflected more that others, the audio amplifier can be adjusted toamplify those frequencies to a lesser amount that others.

[0210] Recent developments in the field of directing sound usinghyper-sound (also referred to as hypersonic sound) now make it possibleto accurately direct sound to the vicinity of the ears of an occupant sothat only that occupant can hear the sound. The system of this inventioncan thus be used to find the proximate direction of the ears of theoccupant for this purpose.

[0211] Hypersonic sound is described in detail in (Norris) U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,885,129, 5,889,870 and (Raida et al.) U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,351 andInternational Publication No. WO 00/18031 which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety to the extent the disclosure of thesereferences is necessary. By practicing the techniques described in thesepatents and the publication, in some cases coupled with a mechanical oracoustical steering mechanism, sound can be directed to the location ofthe ears of a particular vehicle occupant in such a manner that theother occupants can barely hear the sound, if at all. This isparticularly the case when the vehicle is operating at high speeds onthe highway and a high level of “white” noise is present. In thismanner, one occupant can be listening to the news while another islistening to an opera, for example. Naturally, white noise can also beadded to the vehicle and generated by the hypersonic sound system ifnecessary when the vehicle is stopped or traveling in heavy trafficThus, several occupants of a vehicle can listen to different programmingwithout the other occupants hearing that programming. This can beaccomplished using hypersonic sound without requiring earphones.

[0212] In principle, hypersonic sound utilizes the emission of inaudibleultrasonic frequencies that mix in air and result in the generation ofnew audio frequencies. A hypersonic sound system is a highly efficientconverter of electrical energy to acoustical energy. Sound is created inair at any desired point that provides flexibility and allowsmanipulation of the perceived location of the source of the sound.Speaker enclosures are thus rendered dispensable. The dispersion of themixing area of the ultrasonic frequencies and thus the area in which thenew audio frequencies are audible can be controlled to provide a verynarrow or wide area as desired.

[0213] The audio mixing area generated by each set of two ultrasonicfrequency generators in accordance with the invention could thus bedirectly in front of the ultrasonic frequency generators in which casethe audio frequencies would travel from the mixing area in a narrowstraight beam or cone to the occupant. Also, the mixing area can includeonly a single ear of an occupant (another mixing area being formed byultrasonic frequencies generated by a set of two other ultrasonicfrequency generators at the location of the other ear of the occupantwith presumably but not definitely the same new audio frequencies) or belarge enough to encompass the head and both ears of the occupant. If sodesired, the mixing area could even be controlled to encompass thedetermined location of the ears of multiple occupants, e.g , occupantsseated one behind the other or one next to another Vehicle entertainmentsystem 280 may include means for generating and transmitting sound wavesat the ears of the occupants, the position of which are detected bytransducers 231, 232 and processor 101, as well as means for detectingthe presence and direction of unwanted noise. In this manner,appropriate sound waves can be generated and transmitted to the occupantto cancel the unwanted noise and thereby optimize the comfort of theoccupant, i.e., the reception of the desired sound from theentertainment system 280.

[0214] More particularly, the entertainment system 280 includes soundgenerating components such as speakers, the output of which can becontrolled to enable particular occupants to each listen to a specificmusical selection. As such, each occupant can listen to different music,or multiple occupants can listen to the same music while otheroccupant(s) listen to different music. Control of the speakers to directsound waves at a particular occupant, i.e., at the ears of theparticular occupant located in any of the ways discussed herein, can beenabled by any known manner in the art, for example, speakers having anadjustable position and/or orientation or speakers producing directablesound waves. In this manner, once the occupants are located, thespeakers are controlled to direct the sound waves at the occupant, oreven more specifically, at the head or ears of the occupants.

[0215]FIG. 5A shows a schematic of a vehicle with four sound generatingunits 281, 282,283,284 forming part of the entertainment system 280 ofthe vehicle which is coupled to the processor 101. Sound generating unit281 is located to provide sound to the driver Sound generating unit 282is located to provide sound for the front-seated passenger. Soundgenerating unit 283 is located to provide sound for the passenger in therear seat behind the driver and sound generating unit 284 is located toprovide sound for the passenger in the rear seat behind the front-seatedpassenger. A single sound generating unit could be used to provide soundfor multiple locations or multiple sound generating units could be usedto provide sound for a single location.

[0216] Sound generating units 281, 282, 283, 284 operate independentlyand are activated independently so that, for example, when the rear seatis empty, sound generating units 283, 284 are not operated. Thisconstitutes control of the entertainment system based on, for example,the presence, number and position of the occupants. Further, each soundgenerating unit 281-284 can generate different sounds so as to customizethe audio reception for each occupant.

[0217] Each sound generating units 281, 282, 283, 284 may be constructedto utilize hypersonic sound to enable specific, desired sounds to bedirected to each occupant independent of sound directed to anotheroccupant. The construction of sound generating units utilizinghypersonic sound is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,885,129,5,889,870 and 6,016,351 mentioned above and incorporated by referenceherein. In general, in hypersonic sound, ultrasonic waves are generatedby a pair of ultrasonic frequency generators and mix after generation tocreate new audio frequencies. By appropriate positioning, orientationand/or control of the ultrasonic frequency generators, the new audiofrequencies will be created in an area encompassing the head of theoccupant intended to receive the new audio frequencies. Control of thesound generating units 281-284 is accomplished automatically upon adetermination by the monitoring system of at least the position of anyoccupants.

[0218] Furthermore, multiple sound generating units or speakers can beprovided for each sitting position and these sound generating units orspeakers independently activated so that only those sound generatingunits or speakers which provide sound waves at the, determined positionof the ears of the occupant will be activated. In this case, there couldbe four speakers associated with each seat and only two speakers wouldbe activated for, e.g., a small person whose ears are determined to bebelow the upper edge of the seat, whereas the other two would beactivated for a large person whose ears are determined to be above theupper edge of the seat. All four could be activated for a medium sizeperson. This type of control, i.e., control over which of a plurality ofspeakers are activated, would likely be most advantageous when theoutput direction of the speakers is fixed in position and provide soundwaves only for a predetermined region of the passenger compartment.

[0219] When the entertainment system comprises speakers which generateactual audio frequencies, the speakers can be controlled to providedifferent outputs for the speakers based on the occupancy of the seats.For example, using the identification methods disclosed herein, theidentity of the occupants can be determined in association with eachseating position and, by enabling such occupants to store musicpreferences, for example a radio station, the speakers associated witheach seating position can be controlled to provide music from therespective radio station. The speakers could also be automaticallydirected or orientable so that at least one speaker directs sound towardeach occupant present in the vehicle. Speakers that cannot direct soundto an occupant would not be activated.

[0220] Thus, one of the more remarkable advantages of the improved audioreception system and method disclosed herein is that by monitoring theposition of the occupants, the entertainment system can be controlledwithout manual input to optimize audio reception by the occupants. Noisecancellation is now possible for each occupant independently

[0221] 4.4 Other Electromagnetic Transducers

[0222] In FIG. 6 the ultrasonic transducers of the previous designs arereplaced by laser or other electromagnetic wave transducers ortransceivers 231 and 232, which are connected to a microprocessor 101.As discussed above, these are only illustrative mounting locations andany of the locations described herein are suitable for particulartechnologies. Also such electromagnetic transceivers are meant toinclude the entire electromagnetic spectrum including capacitive orelectric field sensors including so called “displacement currentsensors” as discussed in detail above, and the auto-tune antenna sensoralso discussed above.

[0223] Note that the auto-tuned antenna sensor is preferably placed inthe vehicle seat, headrest, floor, dashboard, headliner, or airbagmodule cover. Seat mounted examples are shown at 140, 141, 142 and 143and a floor mounted example at 147. In most other manners, the systemoperates the same.

[0224] The design of the electronic circuits for a laser system isdescribed in some detail in U.S Pat. No. 5,653,462 cross-referencedabove and in particular FIG. 8 thereof and the correspondingdescription. In this case, a pattern recognition system such as a neuralnetwork, or preferably modular neural network, system is employed andcan use the demodulated signals from the receptors 231 and 232. For somecases, such as a laser transceiver that may contain a CMOS, CCD, PIN oravalanche diode or other light sensitive devices, a scanner is alsorequired that can be either solid state as in the case of some radarsystems based on a phased array, an acoustical optical system as is usedby some laser systems, or a mirror or MEMS based reflecting scanner, orother appropriate technology,

[0225] The output of processor 101 of the monitoring system is shownconnected schematically to a general interface 290 which can be thevehicle ignition enabling system; the restraint system; theentertainment system; the seat, mirror, suspension or other adjustmentsystems; or any other appropriate vehicle system.

[0226] 4.5 Supporting Electronic Circuits

[0227] There are several preferred methods of implementing the vehicleinterior monitoring system of this invention including a microprocessor,an application specific integrated circuit system (ASIC), and/or an FPGAor DSP. These systems are represented schematically as either 101 or 601herein. In some systems, both a microprocessor and an ASIC are used. Inother systems, most if not all of the circuitry is combined onto asingle chip (system on a chip). The particular implementation depends onthe quantity to be made and economic considerations. It also depends ontime-to-market considerations where FPGA is frequently the technology ofchoice.

[0228] A block diagram illustrating the microprocessor system is shownin FIG. 7A, which shows the implementation of the system of FIG. 1. Analternate implementation of the FIG. 1 system using an ASIC is shown inFIG. 7B. In both cases the target, which may be a rear facing childseat, is shown schematically as 110 and the three transducers as 131,132, and 133. In the embodiment of FIG. 7A, there is a digitizer coupledto the receivers 131, 133 and the processor, and an indicator coupled tothe processor. In the embodiment of FIG. 7B, there is a memory unitassociated with the ASIC and also an indicator coupled to the ASIC.

[0229] The above applications illustrate the wide range ofopportunities, which become available if the identity and location ofvarious objects and occupants, and some of their parts, within thevehicle were known. Once the system of this invention is operational,integration with the airbag electronic sensor and diagnostics system(SDM) is likely since as interface with SDM is necessary. This sharingof resources will result in a significant cost saving to the automanufacturer. For the same reasons, the VIMS can include the side impactsensor and diagnostic system.

[0230] 4.6 Other Occupying Objects

[0231] In FIG. 8, a view of the system of FIG. 1 is illustrated with abox 295 shown on the front passenger seat in place of a rear facingchild seat. The vehicle interior monitoring system is trained torecognize that this box 295 is neither a rear facing child seat nor anoccupant and therefore it is treated as an empty seat and the deploymentof the airbag is suppressed. The auto-tune antenna based system 140, 141is particularly adept at making this distinction particularly if the boxdoes not contain substantial amounts of water. Although a simpleimplementation of the auto-tune antenna system is illustrated, it is ofcourse possible to use multiple antennas located in the seat andelsewhere in the passenger compartment and these antenna systems caneither operate at one or a multiple of different frequencies todiscriminate type, location and relative size of the object beinginvestigated. This training can be accomplished using a neural networkor modular neural network with the commercially available softwaredisclosed above and provided, for example, by NeuralWare of Pittsburghor ISR. The system assesses the probability that the box is a person,however, and if there is even the remotest chance that it is a person,the airbag deployment is not suppressed. The system is thus typicallybiased toward enabling airbag deployment.

[0232] 5. Other Implementations of the Basic System

[0233] 5.1 Side Impact

[0234] Side impact airbags are now used on some vehicles. Some are quitesmall compared to driver or passenger airbags used for frontal impactprotection. Nevertheless, a small child could be injured if he issleeping with his head against the airbag module when the airbag deploysand a vehicle interior monitoring system is needed to prevent such adeployment. In FIG. 9, a single ultrasonic transducer 330 is shownmounted in a door adjacent airbag system 332 that houses an airbag 336.The airbag system 332 and components of the interior monitoring system,for example transducer 330, are coupled to a processor 101A including acontrol circuit 101B for controlling deployment of the airbag 336 basedon information obtained by ultrasonic transducer 330. This device is notused to identify the object that is adjacent the airbag but merely tomeasure the position of the object. It can also be used to determine thepresence of the object, that is the received waves are indicative of thepresence or absence of an occupant as well as the position of theoccupant or a part thereof. Instead of an ultrasonic transducer, anotherwave-receiving transducer may be used as described in any of the otherembodiments herein, either solely for performing a wave-receivingfunction or for performing both a wave-receiving function and awave-transmitting function.

[0235] 5.2 Headrest Positioning for Rear Impacts

[0236] A rear-of-head detector 334 is also illustrated in FIG. 9. Thisdetector 334 is used to determine the distance from the headrest to therearmost position of the occupant's head and to therefore control theposition of the headrest so that it is properly positioned behind theoccupant's head to offer optimum support during a rear impact. Althoughthe headrest of most vehicles is adjustable, it is rare for an occupantto position it properly if at all. Each year there are in excess of400,000 whiplash injuries in vehicle impacts approximately 90,000 ofwhich are from rear impacts (source: National Highway Traffic SafetyAdmin.). A properly positioned headrest could substantially reduce thefrequency of such injuries, which can be accomplished by the headdetector of this invention. The head detector 334 is shown connectedschematically to the headrest control mechanism and circuitry 340. Thismechanism is capable of moving the headrest up and down and, in somecases, rotating it fore and aft.

[0237] 5.3 Directional Microphone

[0238] When the driver of a vehicle is using a cellular phone, the phonemicrophone frequently picks up other noise in the vehicle making itdifficult for the other party to hear what is being said. This noise canbe reduced if a directional microphone is used and directed toward themouth of the driver. This is difficult to do since the position ofdrivers' mouths varies significantly depending on such things as thesize and seating position of the driver By using the vehicle interioridentification and monitoring system of this invention, and throughappropriate pattern recognition techniques, the location of the driver'shead can be determined with sufficient accuracy even with ultrasonics topermit a directional microphone having, for example, a 15 degree coneangle to be aimed at the mouth of the driver resulting in a clearreception of his voice. The use of directional speakers in a similarmanner also improves the telephone system performance. In the extremecase of directionality, the techniques of hypersonic sound can be used.Such a system can also be used to permit effortless conversationsbetween occupants of the front and rear seats Such a system is shown inFIG. 10, which is a system similar to that of FIG. 2 only using threeultrasonic transducers 231, 232 and 233 to determine the location of thedriver's head and control the pointing direction of a microphone 355.Speaker 357 is shown connected schematically to the phone system 359completing the system. Note, although the transducers are illustrated asbeing mounted on the A-pillar and headliner, better performance isachieved when the transducers are mounted spaced apart as discussed inVarga et. al. U.S. Pat. No. RE 37,260, which in incorporated herein byreference.

[0239] The transducers 231 and 232 can be placed high in the A-pillarand the third transducer 233 is placed in the headliner and displacedhorizontally from transducers 231 and 232. The two transducers 231 and232 provide information to permit the determination of the locus of thehead in the vertical direction and the combination of one of transducers231 and 232 in conjunction with transducer 233 is used to determine thehorizontal location of the head. The three transducers are placed highin the vehicle passenger compartment so that the first returned signalis from the head. Temporal filtering is used to eliminate signals thatare reflections from beyond the head and the determination of the headcenter location is then found by the approximate centroid of the headreturned signal. That is, once the location of the return signalcentroid is found from the three received signals from transducers 231,232 and 233, the distance to that point is known for each of thetransducers based on the time it takes the signal to travel from thehead to each transducer. In this manner, by using the three transducers,all of which send and receive, plus an algorithm for finding thecoordinates of the head center, using processor 101, and through the useof known relationships between the location of the mouth and the headcenter, an estimate of the mouth location, and the ear locations, can bedetermined within a circle having a diameter of about five inches (13cm). This is sufficiently accurate for a directional microphone to coverthe mouth while excluding the majority of unwanted noise.

[0240] 6. Glare Reduction

[0241] The headlights of oncoming vehicles frequently make it difficultfor the driver of a vehicle to see the road and safely operate thevehicle. This is a significant cause of accidents and much discomfort.The problem is especially severe during bad weather where rain can causemultiple reflections. Opaque visors are now used to partially solve thisproblem but they do so by completely blocking the view through a largeportion of the window and therefore cannot be used to cover the entirewindshield. Similar problems happen when the sun is setting or risingand the driver is operating the vehicle in the direction of the sun. Thevehicle interior monitoring system of this invention can contribute tothe solution of this problem by determining the position of the driver'seyes. If separate sensors are used to sense the direction of the lightfrom the on-coming vehicle or the sun, and through the use ofelectro-chromic glass, a liquid crystal device, suspended particledevice glass (SPD) or other appropriate technology, a portion of thewindshield, or special visor as discussed below, can be darkened toimpose a filter between the eyes of the driver and the light source.Electro-chromic glass is a material where the color of the glass can bechanged through the application of an electric current. By dividing thewindshield into a controlled grid or matrix of contiguous areas andthrough feeding the current into the windshield from orthogonaldirections, selective portions of the windshield can be darkened asdesired Other systems for selectively imposing a filter between the eyesof an occupant and the light source are currently under development. Oneexample is to place a transparent sun visor type device between thewindshield and the driver to selectively darken portions of the visor asdescribed above for the windshield.

[0242]FIG. 11 illustrates how such a system operates for the windshield.A sensor 4 10 located on vehicle 402 determines the direction of thelight 412 from the headlights of oncoming vehicle 404. Sensor 410 iscomprised of a lens and a charge-coupled device (CCD), of CMOS lightsensing or similar device, with appropriate electronic circuitry thatdetermines which elements of the CCD are being most brightlyilluminated. An algorithm stored in processor 101 then calculates thedirection of the light from the oncoming headlights based on theinformation from the CCD, or CMOS device. Transducers 231, 232 and 233determine the probable location of the eyes of the operator 210 ofvehicle 402 in a manner such as described above in conjunction with thedetermination of the location of the driver's mouth in the discussion ofFIG. 10. In this case, however, the determination of the probable locusof the driver's eyes is made with an accuracy of a diameter for each eyeof about 3 inches (7.5 cm). This calculation sometimes will be in errorespecially for ultrasonic occupant sensing systems and provision is madefor the driver to make an adjustment to correct for this error asdescribed below.

[0243] The windshield 416 of vehicle 402 is made from electro-chromicglass, comprises a liquid crystal, SPD device or similar system, and isselectively darkened at area 418 due to the application of a currentalong perpendicular directions 422 and 424 of windshield 416. Theparticular portion of the windshield to be darkened is determined byprocessor 101. Once the direction of the light from the oncoming vehicleis known and the locations of the driver's eyes are known, it is amatter of simple trigonometry to determine which areas of the windshieldmatrix should be darkened to impose a filter between the headlights andthe driver's eyes. This is accomplished by processor 101. A separatecontrol system, not shown, located on the instrument panel, steeringwheel or at some other convenient location, allows the driver to selectthe amount of darkening accomplished by the system from no darkening tomaximum darkening. In this manner, the driver can select the amount oflight that is filtered to suit his particular physiology. The sensor 410can either be designed to respond to a single light source or tomultiple light sources to be sensed and thus multiple portions of thevehicle windshield to be darkened.

[0244] As an alternative to locating the direction of the offendinglight source, a camera looking at the eyes of the driver can determinewhen they are being subjected to glare and then impose a filter, perhapsby a trail and error calculation or through the use of structured lightcreated by a pattern on the windshield, determines where to create thefilter to block the glare.

[0245] More efficient systems are now becoming available to permit asubstantial cost reduction as well as higher speed selective darkeningof the windshield for glare control. These systems permit covering theentire windshield which is difficult to achieve with LCDs For example,such systems are made from thin sheets of plastic film, sometimes withan entrapped liquid, and can usually be sandwiched between the twopieces of glass that make up a typical windshield. The development ofconductive plastics permits the addressing and thus the manipulation ofpixels of a transparent film that heretofore was not possible. These newtechnologies will now be discussed.

[0246] If the objective is for glare control then the Xerox Gyricontechnology applied to windows is appropriate. Heretofore this technologyhas only been used to make e-paper and a modification to the technologyis necessary for it to work for glare control. Gyricon is a thin layerof transparent plastic full of millions of small black and white or redand white beads, like toner particles. The beads are contained in anoil-filled cavity. When voltage is applied, the beads rotate to presenta colored side to the viewer. The advantages of Gyricon are: (1) it iselectrically writeable and erasable; (2) it can be re-used thousands oftimes; (3) it does not require backlighting or refreshing; (4) it isbrighter than today's reflective displays; and, (5) it operates on lowpower. The changes required are to cause the colored spheres to rotate90 degrees rather than 180 degrees and to make half of each spheretransparent so that the display switches from opaque to 50% transparent.

[0247] Another technology, SPD light control technology from ResearchFrontiers Inc., has been used to darken entire windows but not as asystem for darkening only a portion of the glass or sun visor to imposea selective filter to block the sun or headlights of an oncomingvehicle. Although it has been used as a display for laptop computers, ithas not been used as a heads-up display (HUD) replacement technology forautomobile or truck windshields.

[0248] Both SPD and Gyricon technologies require that the particles beimmersed in a fluid so that the particles can move Since the propertiesof the fluid will be temperature sensitive, these technologies will varysomewhat in performance over the automotive temperature range. Thepreferred technology, therefore, is plastic electronics although in manyapplications either Gyricon or SPD will also be used in combination withplastic electronics, at least until the technology matures.

[0249] The calculations of the location of the driver's eyes usingacoustic systems may be in error and therefore provision must be made tocorrect for this error. One such system permits the driver to adjust thecenter of the darkened portion of the windshield to correct for sucherrors through a knob, mouse pad, joy stick or other input device, onthe instrument panel, steering wheel, door, armrest or other convenientlocation. Another solution permits the driver to make the adjustment byslightly moving his head. Once a calculation as to the location of thedriver's eyes has been made, that calculation is not changed even thoughthe driver moves his head slightly. It is assumed that the driver willonly move his head to center the darkened portion of the windshield tooptimally filter the light from the oncoming vehicle. The monitoringsystem will detect this initial head motion and make the correctionautomatically for future calculations. Additionally, a camera observingthe driver or other occupant can monitor the reflections of the sun oran oncoming vehicles headlights off of the occupant's head or eyes andautomatically adjust the filter in the windshield or sun visor.

[0250] Electro-chromic glass is currently used in rear view mirrors todarken the entire mirror in response to the amount of light striking anassociated sensor. This substantially reduces the ability of the driverto see objects coming from behind his vehicle. If one rear-approachingvehicle, for example, has failed to dim his lights, the mirror will bedarkened to respond to the light from that vehicle making it difficultfor the driver to see other vehicles that are also approaching from therear. If the rear view mirror is selectively darkened on only thoseportions that cover the lights from the offending vehicle, the driver isable to see all of the light coming from the rear whether the source isbright or dim. This permits the driver to see all of the approachingvehicles not just the one with bright lights.

[0251] Such a system is illustrated in FIG. 12 12A and 12B where rearview mirror 460 is equipped with electrochromic glass, or comprises aliquid crystal or similar device, having the capability of beingselectively darkened, e.g., at area 419. Associated with mirror 460 is alight sensor 462 that determines the direction of light 412 from theheadlights of rear approaching vehicle 405. In the same manner as above,transducers 231, 232 and 233 determine the location of the eyes of thedriver 210. The signals from both sensor systems, 231, 232 plus 233 and462, are combined in processor 101, where a determination is made as towhat portions of the mirror should be darkened, e.g., area 419.Appropriate currents are then sent to the nirror in a manner similar tothe windshield system described above. Again, an alternative solution isto observe a glare reflection on the face of the driver and remove theglare with a filter.

[0252] Note, the rearview mirror is also an appropriate place to displayicons of the contents of the blind spot or other areas surrounding thevehicle as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/851,362filed May 8, 2001 and incorporated herein by reference.

[0253] 7. Window Displays

[0254] In addition to offering the possibility of glare control, plasticelectronics offer the possibility of turning any window into a display.This can be the windshield of an automobile or any window in a vehicleor house or other building, for that matter. A storefront can become achangeable advertising display, for example, and the windows of a housecould be a display where emergency services warn people of a cominghurricane. For automotive and truck use, the windshield can now fulfillall of the functions that previously have required a heads up display(HUD). These include displays of any information that a driver may wantor need including the gages normally on the instrument panel, displayingthe results of a night vision camera and, if an occupant sensor ispresent, an image of an object, or an icon representation, can bedisplayed on the windshield where the driver would see it if it werevisible through the windshield as discussed in more detail elsewhereherein and in the commonly assigned cross referenced patents and patentapplications listed above. In fact, plastic electronics have the abilityto cover most or even the entire windshield area at very low cost andwithout the necessity of an expensive and difficult to mount projectionsystem. In contrast, most HUDs are very limited in windshield coverage.Plastic electronics also provide for a full color display, which isdifficult to provide with a HUD since the combiner in the HUD is usuallytuned to reflect only a single color.

[0255] In addition to safety uses, turning one or more windows of ahouse or vehicle into a display can have “infotainment” and other uses.For example, a teenager may wish to display a message on the sidewindows to a passing vehicle such as “hi, can I have your phone number?”The passing vehicle can then display the phone number if the occupant ofthat vehicle wishes. A vehicle or a vehicle operator that isexperiencing problems can display “HELP” or some other appropriatemessage. The occupants of the back seat of a vehicle can use the sidewindow displays to play games or search the Internet, for example.Similarly, a special visor like display based of plastic electronics canbe rotated or pulled down from the ceiling for the same purposes. Thus,in a very cost effective manner, any or all of the windows or sun visorsof the vehicle (or house or building) can now become computer displaysand thus make use of previously unused surfaces for information display.

[0256] In another application, a portion of the windshield, such as thelower left corner, can be used to display the vehicle and surroundingvehicles or other objects as seen from above, for example, as describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/851,362 filed May 8, 2000 whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This display canuse pictures or icons as appropriate. In another case, the condition ofthe road such as the presence, or likelihood of black ice can bedisplayed on the windshield where it would show on the road if thedriver could see it. Naturally, this would require a source ofinformation that such a condition exists, however, here the concern isthat it can be displayed whatever the source of this or any otherrelevant information. When used in conjunction with a navigation system,directions including pointing arrows can be displayed to direct thedriver to his destination or to points of interest.

[0257] Plastic electronics is in an early stage of development but willhave an enormous impact on the windows, sunroofs and sun visors ofvehicles. For example, researchers at Philips Research Laboratories havemade a 64×64-pixel liquid crystal display (LCD) in which each pixel iscontrolled by a plastic transistor. Other researchers have used apolymer-dispersed liquid-crystal display (PDLCD) to demonstrate theirpolymeric transistor patterning. A PDLCD is a reflective display that,unlike most LCD technologies, is not based on polarization effects andso can be used to make a flexible display that could be pulled down likea shade, for example. In a PDLCD, light is either scattered bynonaligned molecules in liquid-crystal domains or the LC domains aretransparent because an electrical field aligns the molecules.

[0258] Pentacene (5A) and sexithiophene (6T) are currently the two mostwidely used organic semiconductors. These are two conjugated moleculeswhose means of assembly in the solid state lead to highly orderlymaterials, including even the single crystal. The excellent transportproperties of these molecules may be explained by the high degree ofcrystallinity of the thin films of these two semiconductor components.

[0259] The discovery of conducting polymers has become even moresignificant as this class of materials has proven to be of greattechnological promise. Conducting polymers have been put to use in suchniche applications as electromagnetic shielding, antistatic coatings onphotographic films, and windows with changeable optical properties. Theundoped polymers, which arc semiconducting and sometimeselectroluminescent, have led to even more exciting possibilities, suchas transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and photodetectors. Thequantum efficiency (the ratio of photons out to electrons in) of thefirst polymer LEDs was about 0.01%, but subsequent work quickly raisedit to about 1%. Polymer LEDs now have efficiencies of above about 10%,and they can emit a variety of colors. The upper limit of efficiency wasonce thought to be about 25% but this limitation has now been exceededand improvements are expected to continue.

[0260] A screen based on PolyLEDs has advantages since it is lightweightand flexible. It can be rolled up or embedded into a windshield or otherwindow. With plastic chips the electronics driving the screen areintegrated into the screen itself. Some applications of the PolyLED areinformation screens of almost unlimited size, for example alongsidemotorways or at train stations. They now work continuously for about50,000 hours, which is more that the life of an automobile. Used as adisplay, PolyLEDs are much thinner than an LCD screen with backlight.

[0261] The most important benefit of the PolyLED is the high contrastand the high brightness with the result that they can be easily read inboth bright and dark environments, which is important for automotiveapplications. A PolyLED does not have the viewing angle problemassociates with LCDs. The light is transmitted in all directions withthe same intensity. Of particular importance is that PolyLEDs can beproduced in large quantities at a low price. The efficiency of currentplastic electronic devices depends somewhat on their electricalconductivity, which is currently considerably below metals. Withimproved ordering of the polymer chains, however, the conductivity isexpected to eventually exceed that of the best metals. Plasticelectronics can be made using solution based processing methods, such asspincoating, casting, and printing. This fact can potentially reduce thefabrication cost and lead to large area reel-to-reel production. Inparticular, printing methods (particularly screen printing) areespecially desirable since the deposition and patterning steps can becombined in one single step. Screen printing has been widely used incommercial printed circuit boards and was recently adopted by severalresearch groups to print electrodes as well as the active polymer layersfor organic transistors and simple circuits. Inkjets and rubber stampsare alternative printing methods. A full-color polymer LED fabricated byink-jet printing has been demonstrated using a solution ofsemiconducting polymer in a common solvent as the ink.

[0262] As reported in Science Observer, November-December, 1998“Printing Plastic Transistors” plastic transistors can be madetransparent, so that they could be used in display systems incorporatedin an automobile's windshield. The plastic allows these circuits to bebent along the curvature of a windshield or around a package. Forexample, investigators at Philips Research in The Netherlands havedeveloped a disposable identification tag that can be incorporated inthe wrapping of a soft package.

[0263] 8. Glare Reducing Sun Visor

[0264]FIG. 21 illustrates the interior of a passenger compartment with arear view mirror 932, a camera for viewing the eyes of the driver 934and a large, generally transparent visor 930. The sun visor 930 isnormally largely transparent and is made from electrochromic glass,suspended particle glass or a liquid crystal. device or other comparabledevices. The camera 934 images the eyes of the driver and looks for areflection indicating that glare is impinging on the driver's eyes. Thecamera system may have a source of infrared or other frequencyillumination that would be momentarily activated to aid in locating thedriver's eyes. The driver's eyes can also be located in any means, e.g.,by determining the location of the driver's head and extrapolating thelocation of the eyes. Once the eyes have been located, the cameramonitors the area around the eyes for an indication of glare. The camerasystem in this case would not know the direction from which the glare isoriginating; it would only know that the glare was present. The glareblocker system can then darken selected portions of the visor to attemptto block the source of glare and would use the observation of the glarearound the eyes of the driver as feedback information. When the glarehas been eliminated, the system maintains the filter perhaps momentarilyreducing it from time to time to see that the source of glare has notstopped.

[0265] If the filter is electrochromic glass, a significant time periodis required to activate the glare filter and therefore a trial and errorsearch for the ideal filter location could be too slow. In this case, anon-recurring pattern can be placed in the visor such that when lightpasses through the visor and illuminates the face of the driver, thelocation where the filter should be placed can be easily determined.That is, the pattern reflection off of the face of the driver wouldindicate the location of the visor through which the light causing theglare was passing. Such a structured light system can also be used forthe SPD and LCD filters but since they act significantly more rapidly itwould serve only to simplify the search algorithm for filter placement.

[0266] A second photo sensor can also be used pointing through thewindshield to determine only that glare was present. In this manner whenthe source of glare disappears the filter can be turned off. Naturally,a more sophisticated system as described above for the windshield systemwhereby the direction of the light is determined using a camera typedevice can also be implemented.

[0267] The visor 930 is illustrated as substantially covering the frontwindshield in front of the driver. This is possible since it istransparent except where the filter is applied, which would in generalbe a small area. A second visor, not shown, can also be used to coverthe windshield for the passenger side that would also be useful when thelight-causing glare on the driver's eyes enters thought the windshieldin front of the passenger or if a passenger system is also desired. Insome cases, it might even be advantageous to supply a similar visor tocover the side windows but in general standard opaque visors would servefor both the passenger side windshield area and the side windows sincethe driver really in general only needs to look through the windshieldin front of him or her.

[0268] A smaller visor can also be used as long as it is provided with apositioning system or method. The visor really only needs to cover theeyes of the driver. This could either be done manually or by electricmotors. If electric motors are used, then the adjustment system wouldfirst have to move the visor so that it covered the driver's eyes andthen provide the filter. This could be annoying if the vehicle isheading into the sun and turning and/or going up and down hills. In anycase, the visor should be movable to cover any portion of the windshieldwhere glare can get through, unlike conventional visors that only coverthe top half of the windshield. The visor also does not need to be closeto the windshield and the closer that it is to the driver the smallerand thus the less expensive it can be.

[0269] As with the windshield, the visor of this invention can alsoserve as a display using plastic electronics as described above eitherwith or without the SPD or other filter material. Additionally, visorlike displays can now be placed at many locations in the vehicle for thedisplay of Internet web pages, movies, games etc. Occupants of the rearseat, for example, can pull down such displays from the ceiling, up fromthe front seatbacks or out from the B-pillars or other convenientlocations.

[0270] 9. Seatbelt Adjustment

[0271] Seatbelts are most effective when the upper attachment point tothe vehicle is positioned vertically close to the shoulder of theoccupant being restrained. If the attachment point is too low theoccupant experiences discomfort from the rubbing of the belt on hisshoulder. If it is too high, the occupant may experience discomfort dueto the rubbing of the belt against his neck and the occupant will moveforward by a greater amount during a crash, which may result in his headstriking the steering wheel. Short stature people in particularfrequently experience discomfort from an improperly adjusted seatbeltanchorage point. For these reasons, it is desirable to have the upperseatbelt attachment point located slightly above the occupant'sshoulder. To accomplish this for various sized occupants, the locationof the occupant's shoulder must be known which can be accomplished bythe vehicle interior monitoring system described herein. Such a systemis illustrated in FIG. 13 that is a side view of a seatbelt anchorageadjustment system. In this system, a transmitter and receiver(transducer or transceiver) 520 is positioned in a convenient location,such as the headliner, located above and to the outside of theoccupant's shoulder. A narrow beam 521 of energy can be transmitted fromtransducer 520 in a manner such that it irradiates or illuminates theoccupant's shoulder and headrest. An appropriate pattern recognitionsystem as described above is then used to determine the location andposition of the occupant's shoulder. This information is fed to theseatbelt anchorage height adjustment system 528, shown schematically,which moves the attachment point 529 to the optimum vertical location.

[0272] 10. Resonators

[0273] Acoustic or electromagnetic resonators are devices that resonateat a preset frequency when excited at that frequency. If such a device,which has been tuned to 40 kHz for example, or some other appropriatefrequency, is subjected to radiation at 40 kHz it will return a signalthat can be stronger than the reflected radiation. If such a device isplaced at a particular point in the passenger compartment of a vehicle,the returned signal can be easily identified as a high magnitude narrowsignal at a particular point in time that is proportional to thedistance from the resonator to the receiver. Since this device can beeasily identified, it provides a particularly effective method ofdetermining the distance to a particular point in the vehicle passengercompartment (i.e., the distance between the location of the resonatorand the detector). If several such resonators are used they can be tunedto slightly different frequencies and therefore separated and identifiedby the circuitry. Using such resonators, the positions of variousobjects in the vehicle can be determined In FIG. 14, for example, threesuch resonators are placed on the vehicle seat and used to determine thelocation of the front and back of the seat and the top of the seat back.In this case, transducers 231 and 232, mounted in the A-pillar 662, areused in conjunction with resonators 641, 642 and 643 to determine theposition of the seat. Transducers 231, 232 constitute both transmittermeans for transmitting energy signals at the excitation frequencies ofthe resonators 641, 642, 643 and detector means for detecting the returnenergy signals from the excited resonators. Processor 101 is coupled tothe transducers 231, 232 to analyze the energy signals received by thedetectors and provide information about the object with which theresonators are associated, i.e, the position of the seat in thisembodiment. This information is then fed to the seat memory andadjustment system, not shown, eliminating the currently used sensorsthat are placed typically beneath the seat adjacent the seat adjustmentmotors. In the conventional system, the seat sensors must be wired intothe seat adjustment system and are prone to being damaged. By using thevehicle interior monitoring system alone with inexpensive passiveresonators, the conventional seat sensors can be eliminated resulting ina cost saving to the vehicle manufacturer. An efficient reflector, suchas a parabolic shaped reflector, or in some cases a corner cubereflector (which can be a multiple cube pattern array), can be used in asimilar manner as the resonator. Similarly, a surface acoustic wave(SAW) device, RFID, variable resistor, inductor or capacitor device andradio frequency radiation can be used as a resonator or a delay linereturning a signal to the interrogator permitting the presence andlocation of an object to be obtained as described in detail in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/079,065 which is incorporated herein inits entirety by reference.

[0274] Resonators or reflectors, of the type described above can be usedfor making a variety of position measurements in the vehicle. They canbe placed on an object such as a child seat (see FIG. 2) to permit thedirect detection of its presence and, in some cases, its orientation.These resonators are made to resonate at a particular frequency. If thenumber of resonators increases beyond a reasonable number, dualfrequency resonators can be used. A pair of frequencies is then used toidentify a particular location. Alternately, resonators tuned to aparticular frequency can be used in combination with specialtransmitters, which transmit at the tuned frequency, which are designedto work with a particular resonator or group of resonators. The cost ofthe transducers is sufficiently low to permit special transducers to beused for special purposes. The use of resonators that resonate atdifferent frequencies requires that they be irradiated by radiationcontaining those frequencies. This an be done with a chirp circuit.

[0275] An alternate approach is to make use of secondary emission wherethe frequency emitted form the device is at a different frequency thatthe interrogator. Phosphors, for example, convert ultraviolet to visibleand devices exist that convert electromagnetic waves to ultrasonicwaves. Other devices can return a frequency that is a sub-harmonic ofthe interrogation frequency. Additionally, an RFID tag can use theincident RF energy to charge up a capacitor and then radiate energy at adifferent frequency.

[0276] Another application for a resonator of the type described is todetermine the location of the seatbelt and therefore determine whetherit is in use. If it is known that the occupants are wearing seatbelts,the airbag deployment parameters can be controlled or adjusted based onthe knowledge of seatbelt use, e.g., the deployment threshold can beincreased since the airbag is not needed in low velocity accidents ifthe occupants are already restrained by seatbelts. Deployment of otheroccupant restraint devices could also be effected based on the knowledgeof seatbelt use. This will reduce the number of deployments for caseswhere the airbag provides little or no improvement in safety over theseatbelt. FIG. 15, for example, shows the placement of a resonator 602on the front surface of the seatbelt where it can be sensed by thetransducers 231 and 232. Such a system can also be used positivelyidentify the presence of a rear facing child seat in the vehicle. Inthis case, a resonator 603 is placed on the forward most portion of thechild seat, or in some other convenient position, as shown in FIG. 1A.As illustrated and discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/079,065, there are various methods of obtaining distance from aresonator, reflector, RFID or SAW device which include measuring thetime of flight, using phase measurements, correlation analysis andtriangulation.

[0277] Other uses for such resonators include placing them on doors andwindows in order to determine whether either is open or closed. In FIG.16A, for example, such a resonator 604 is placed on the top of thewindow and is sensed by transducers 611 and 612. In this case,transducers 611 and 612 also monitor the space between the edge of thewindow glass and the top of the window opening. Many vehicles now havesystems that permit the rapid opening of the window, called “expressopen”, by a momentary push of a button. For example, when a vehicleapproaches a tollbooth, the driver needs only touch the window controlbutton and the window opens rapidly. Some automobile manufacturers donot wish to use such systems for closing the window, called “expressclose”, because of the fear that the hand of the driver, or of a childleaning forward from the rear seat, or some other object, could getcaught between the window and window frame. If the space between theedge of the window and the window frame were monitored with an interiormonitoring system, this problem can be solved. The presence of theresonator or reflector 604 on the top of the window glass also gives apositive indication of where the top surface is and reflections frombelow that point can be ignored.

[0278] Various design variations of the window monitoring system arepossible and the particular choice will depend on the requirements ofthe vehicle manufacturer and the characteristics of the vehicle. Twosystems will be briefly described here.

[0279] In the first example shown in FIG. 16, a singletransmitter/receiver (transducer) 613 is used in place of and locatedcentrally midway between the transducers 611 and 612 shown in FIG. 16A.A recording of the output of transducer 613 is made of the open windowwithout an object in the space between the window edge and the top ofthe window frame. When in operation, the transducer 613 receives thereturn signal from the space it is monitoring and compares that signalwith the stored signal referenced above. This is done by processor 601.If the difference between the test signal and the stored signalindicates that there is a reflecting object in the monitored space, thewindow is prevented from closing in the express close mode. If thewindow is part way up, a reflection will be received from the edge ofthe window glass that, in most cases, is easily identifiable from thereflection of a hand for example. A simple algorithm based on theintensity, or timing, of the reflection in most cases is sufficient todetermine that an object rather than the window edge is in the monitoredspace. In other cases, the algorithm is used to identify the window edgeand ignore that reflection and all other reflections that are lower(i.e. later in time) than the window edge. In all cases, the system willdefault in not permitting the express close if there is any doubt. Theoperator can still close the window by holding the switch in the windowclosing position and the window will then close slowly as it now does invehicles without the express close feature.

[0280] In the second system, two transducers 611 and 612 are used asshown in FIG. 16A and the processor 601 comprises a neural network. Inthis example the system is trained for all cases where the window isdown and at intermediate locations. In operation, the transducersmonitor the window space and feed the received signals to processor 601.As long as the signals are similar to one of the signals for which thenetwork was trained, the express close system is enabled. As before, thedefault is to suppress the express close.

[0281] An alternate technology to the use of resonators is to use anactive or passive radio frequency identification tag (RFID tag) based oneither a RF charged electronic circuit or a powerless surface acousticwave technology (SAW). Such a tag can be placed on an object such as aseat or child seat and when interrogated it will return a signal usuallycontaining an identification number.

[0282] The use of a resonator, RFID or SAW tag, or reflector, todetermine whether the vehicle door is properly shut is illustrated inFIG. 17. In this case, the resonator 702 is placed in the B-pillar insuch a manner that it is shielded by the door, or by a cover or otherinhibiting mechanism (not shown) engaged by the door, and blocked orprevented from resonating when the door is closed. Resonator 702provides waves 704. If transducers such as 231 and 232 in FIG. 3 areused in this system, the closed-door condition would be determined bythe absence of a return signal from the B-pillar 702 resonator. Thissystem permits the substitution of an inexpensive resonator for a moreexpensive and less reliable electrical switch plus wires.

[0283] The use of a resonator has been described above. For those caseswhere an infrared laser system is used, an optical mirror or reflectorwould replace the mechanical resonator used with the acoustic system. Inthe acoustic system, the resonator can be any of a variety of tunedresonating systems including an acoustic cavity or a vibratingmechanical element. As discussed above,a properly designedantenna,corner reflector,or a SAW device fulfills this function forradio frequency waves.

[0284] For the purposes herein, the word resonator will frequently beused to include any device that returns a signal when excited by asignal sent by another device through the air. Thus,resonator wouldinclude a resonating antenna,a reflector,a surface acoustic wave (SAW)device,an RFID tag,an acoustic resonator,or any other device thatperforms substantially the same function.

[0285] 11. Security and Recognition of an Individual

[0286] A neural network,or other pattern recognition system,can betrained to recognize certain people as permitted operators of a vehicle.In this case,if a non-recognized person attempts to operate the vehicle,the system can disable the vehicle and/or sound an alarm as illustratedin FIG. 18. In this figure the sensing transducers are shown as beforeas 231A, 232A and 233A, the alarm system schematically as 708 and thealarm as 705. Since it is unlikely that an unauthorized operator willresemble the authorized operator, the neural network system can be quitetolerant of differences in appearance of the operator. The systemdefaults to where a key must be used in the case that the system doesn'trecognize the driver or the owner wishes to allow another person tooperate the vehicle. The transducers 231A, 232A and 233A are sensitiveto infrared radiation and the operator is irradiated with infrared wavesfrom transducer 231A. This is necessary due to the small size of thefeatures that need to be recognized for high accuracy of recognition. Analternate system uses an infrared laser,which can be 231A in FIG. 18, toirradiate or illuminate the operator and a CCD or CMOS device,which canbe represented as 232A in FIG. 18, to receive the reflected image. Inthis case, the recognition of the operator is accomplished using apattern recognition system such as described in Popesco, V. and Vincent,J. M. “Location of Facial Features Using a Boltzmann Machine toImplement Geometric Constraints”, Chapter 14 of Lisboa, P. J. G. andTaylor, M. J. Editors, Techniques and Applications of Neural Networks,Ellis Horwood Publishers, New York, 1993. In the present case a largerCCD element array containing 100,000 or more elements would in manycases be used instead of the 16 by 16 or 256 element CCD array used byPopesco and Vincent.

[0287] Once a vehicle interior monitoring system employing asophisticated pattern recognition system,such as a neural network ormodular neural network, is in place, it is possible to monitor themotions of the driver over time and determine if he is falling asleep orhas otherwise become incapacitated. In such an event, the vehicle can becaused to respond in a number of different ways. One such system isillustrated in FIG. 19 and consists of a monitoring system havingtransducers 231, 232 and 233 plus microprocessor 101, such as shown inFIG. 7A, programmed to compare the motions of the driver over time andtrained to recognize changes in behavior representative of becomingincapacitated. If the system determines that there is a reasonableprobability that the driver has fallen asleep, for example, then it canturn on a warning light shown here as 805 or send a warning sound. Ifthe driver fails to respond to the warning by pushing a button 806, forexample, then the horn and lights can be operated in a manner to warnother vehicles and the vehicle brought to a stop. One novel approach,notshown, would be to use the horn as the button 806. For a momentarydepression of the horn, for this case, the horn would not sound.Naturally other responses can also be programmed.

[0288] An even more sophisticated system of monitoring the behavior ofthe driver is to track his eye motions using such techniques as aredescribed in: Freidman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,052 “Eye TrackerCommunication System”; Heyner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,189 “EyePosition Sensor”; Hutchinson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,670 “Eye MovementDetector”; and Hutchinson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,069 “Eye MovementDetector With Improved Calibration and Speed”, all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety to the extent thedisclosure of these references is necessary. The detection of theimpaired driver in particular can be best determined by thesetechniques. Also, in a similar manner as described in these patents, themotion of the driver's eyes can be used to control various systems inthe vehicle permitting hands off control of the entertainment system,heating and air conditioning system or all of the other systemsdescribed above. Although some of these systems have been described inthe afore-mentioned patents,none have made use of neural networks forinterpreting the eye movements.

[0289] In most of the applications described above,single frequencyenergy was used to irradiate various occupying items of the passengercompartment. This was for illustrative purposes only and this inventionis not limited to single frequency irradiation. In many applications, itis useful to use several discrete frequencies or a band of frequencies.In this manner, considerably greater information is received from thereflected irradiation permitting greater discrimination betweendifferent classes of objects. In general each object will have adifferent reflectivity, absorbtivity and transmissivity at eachfrequency. Also, the different resonators placed at different positionsin the passenger compartment can now be tuned to different frequenciesmaking it easier to isolate one resonator from another.

[0290] 12. Near Field Antenna Sensor

[0291] A block diagram of an antenna based near field object detector isillustrated in FIG. 20. The circuit variables are defined as follows:

[0292] F=Frequency of operation (Hz).

[0293] ω=2*π*F radians/second

[0294] α=Phase angle between antenna voltage and antenna current.

[0295] A,k1, k2, k3, k4 are scale factors, determined by system design.

[0296] Tp1-8 are points on FIG. 20.

[0297] Tp1=k1*Sin(ωt)

[0298] Tp2=k1*Cos(ωt)Reference voltage to phase detector

[0299] Tp3=k2*Sin(ωt) drive voltage to Antenna

[0300] Tp4=k3*Cos(ωt+δ) Antenna current

[0301] Tp5=k4*Cos(ωt+δ) Voltage representing Antenna current

[0302] Tp6=0.5□t)Sin(δ. . . Output of phase detector

[0303] Tp7=Absorption signal output

[0304] Tp8=Proximity signal output

[0305] In a tuned circuit, the voltage and the current are 90 degreesout of phase with each other at the resonant frequency. The frequencysource 300 supplies a signal to the phase shifter 302. The phase shifter302 outputs two signals that are out of phase by 90 degrees at frequencyF. The drive to the antenna 304 is the signal Tp3. The antenna 304 canbe of any suitable type such as dipole, patch, yagi etc. In cases wherethe signal Tp1 from the phase shifter 302 has sufficient power, thepower amplifier 306 may be eliminated. The antenna current is at Tp4,which is converted into a voltage since the phase detector 308 requiresa voltage drive. The output of the phase detector 308 is Tp6, which isfiltered via an amplifier filter 312 and used to drive the varactortuning diode D1 (314). Multiple diodes may be used in place of diode D1.The phase detector 308, amplifier filter 312, varactor diode 314 andcurrent to voltage converter 316 form a closed loop (tuning loop) servothat keeps the antenna voltage and current in a 90-degree relationshipat frequency F. The tuning loop maintains a 90-degree phase relationshipbetween the antenna voltage and the antenna current. When an object suchas a human comes near the antenna 304 and attempts to detune it, thephase detector 308 senses the phase change and adds or subtractscapacity by changing voltage to the varactor diode D1 therebymaintaining resonance at frequency F.

[0306] The voltage Tp8 is an indication of the capacity of a nearbyobject. An object that is near the loop and absorbs energy from it willchange the amplitude of the signal at Tp5, which is detected andoutputted to Tp7. The two signals Tp7 and Tp8 are used to determine thenature of the object near the antenna.

[0307] An object such as a human or animal with a fairly high electricalpermittivity or dielectric constant and a relatively high loss dielectncproperty (high loss tangent) absorbs a lot of energy. This effect varieswith the frequency used for the detection. If a human, who has a highloss tangent is present in the detection field then the dielectricabsorption causes the value of the capacitance of the object to changewith frequency. For a human with high dielectric losses (high losstangent), the decay with frequency will be more pronounced than objectsthat do not present this high loss tangency. Exploiting this phenomenonmakes it possible to detect the presence of an adult, child, baby, petor other animal in the detection field.

[0308] 13. Summary

[0309] An older method of antenna tuning used the antenna current andthe voltage across the antenna to supply the inputs to a phase detector.In a 25 to 50 mw transmitter with a 50 ohm impedance, the current issmall, it is therefore preferable to use the method described herein.

[0310] Among the inventions disclosed above is an arrangement forobtaining and conveying information about occupancy of a passengercompartment of a vehicle which comprises at least one wave-receivingsensor for receiving waves from the passenger compartment, generatingmeans coupled to the wave-receiving sensor(s) for generating informationabout the occupancy of the passenger compartment based on the wavesreceived by the wave-receiving sensor(s) and communications meanscoupled to the generating means for transmitting the information aboutthe occupancy of the passenger compartment. As such, response personnelcan receive the information about the occupancy of the passengercompartment and respond appropriately, if necessary There may be severalwave-receiving sensors and they may be, e.g., ultrasonic wave-receivingsensors, electromagnetic wave-receiving sensors, electric, magnetic orelectromagnetic field sensors, antenna near field modification sensingsensors, energy absorption sensors, capacitance sensors, or combinationsthereof The information about the occupancy of the passenger compartmentcan include the number of occupants in the passenger compartment, aswell as whether each occupant is moving non-reflexively and breathing. Atransmitter may be provided for transmitting waves into the passengercompartment such that each wave-receiving sensor receives wavestransmitted from the transmitter and modified by passing into and atleast partially through the passenger compartment. Waves may also befrom natural sources such as the sun, from lights on a vehicle orroadway, or radiation naturally emitted from the occupant or otherobject in the vehicle.

[0311] One or more memory units may be coupled to the generating meansfor storing the information about the occupancy of the passengercompartment and to the communications means. The communications meansthen can interrogate the memory unit(s) upon a crash of the vehicle tothereby obtain the information about the occupancy of the passengercompartment. In one particularly useful embodiment, means fordetermining the health state of at least one occupant are provided,e.g., a heartbeat sensor, a motion sensor such as a micropower impulseradar sensor for detecting motion of the at least one occupant andmotion sensor for determining whether the occupant(s) is/are breathing,and coupled to the communications means. The communications means caninterrogate the health state determining means upon a crash of thevehicle, or some other event or even continuously, to thereby obtain andtransmit the health state of the occupant(s). The health statedetermining means can also comprise a chemical sensor for analyzing theamount of carbon dioxide in the passenger compartment or around the atleast one occupant or for detecting the presence of blood in thepassenger compartment. Movement of the occupant can be determined bymonitoring the weight distribution of the occupant(s), or an analysis ofwaves from the space occupied by the occupant(s). Each wave-receivingsensor generates a signal representative of the waves received therebyand the generating means may comprise a processor for receiving andanalyzing the signal from the wave-receiving sensor in order to generatethe information about the occupancy of the passenger compartment. Theprocessor can comprise pattern recognition means for classifying anoccupant of the seat so that the information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment includes the classification of the occupant. Thewave-receiving sensor may be a micropower impulse radar sensor adaptedto detect motion of an occupant whereby the motion of the occupant orabsence of motion of the occupant is indicative of whether the occupantis breathing. As such, the information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment generated by the generating means is an indicationof whether the occupant is breathing. Also, the wave-receiving sensormay generate a signal representative of the waves received thereby andthe generating means receive this signal over time and determine whetherany occupants in the passenger compartment are moving. As such, theinformation about the occupancy of the passenger compartment generatedby the generating means includes the number of moving and non-movingoccupants in the passenger compartment.

[0312] A related method for obtaining and conveying information aboutoccupancy of a passenger compartment of a vehicle comprises the steps ofreceiving waves from the passenger compartment, generating informationabout the occupancy of the passenger compartment based on the receivedwaves, and transmitting the information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment whereby response personnel can receive theinformation about the occupancy of the passenger compartment Waves maybe transmitted into the passenger compartment whereby the transmittedwaves are modified by passing into and at least partially through thepassenger compartment and then received. The information about theoccupancy of the passenger compartment may be stored in at least onememory unit which is subsequently interrogated upon a crash of thevehicle to thereby obtain the information about the occupancy of thepassenger compartment and thereafter the information with or withoutpictures of the passenger compartment before, during and/or after acrash or other event can be sent to a remote location such as anemergency services personnel station. A signal representative of thereceived waves can be generated by sensors and analyzed in order togenerate the information about the state of health of at least oneoccupant of the passenger compartment and/or to generate the informationabout the occupancy of the passenger compartment (i.e., determinenon-reflexive movement and/or breathing indicating life). Patternrecognition techniques, e.g., a trained neural network, can be appliedto analyze the signal and thereby recognize and identify any occupantsof the passenger compartment. In this case, the identification of theoccupants of the passenger compartment can be included into theinformation about the occupancy of the passenger compartment.

[0313] Other embodiments disclosed above are directed to methods andarrangements for controlling deployment of an airbag. One exemplifyingembodiment of an arrangement for controlling deployment of an airbagfrom an airbag module to protect an occupant in a seat of a vehicle in acrash comprises determining means for determining the position of theoccupant or a part thereof, and control means coupled to the determiningmeans for controlling deployment of the airbag based on the determinedposition of the occupant or part thereof. The determining means maycomprise receiver means, e.g., a wave-receiving transducer such as anelectromagnetic wave receiver (such as a SAW, CCD, CMOS, capacitor plateor antenna) or an ultrasonic transducer, for receiving waves from aspace above a seat portion of the seat and processor means coupled tothe receiver means for generating a signal representative of theposition of the occupant or part thereof based on the waves received bythe receiver means. The determining means can include transmitter meansfor transmitting waves into the space above the seat portion of the seatwhich are receivable by the receiver means The receiver means may bemounted in various positions in the vehicle, including in a door of thevehicle, in which case, the distance between the occupant and the doorwould be determined, i.e., to determine whether the occupant is leaningagainst the door, and possibly adjacent the airbag module if it issituated in the door, or elsewhere in the vehicle. The control means aredesigned to suppress deployment of the airbag, control the time at whichdeployment of the airbag starts, control the rate of gas flow into theairbag, control the rate of gas flow out of the airbag and/or controlthe rate of deployment of the airbag.

[0314] Another arrangement for controlling deployment of an airbagcomprises determining means for determining whether an occupant ispresent in the seat, and control means coupled to the determining meansfor controlling deployment of the airbag based on whether an occupant ispresent in the seat, e.g., to suppress deployment if the seat isunoccupied. The determining means may comprise receiver means, e.g., awave-receiving transducer such as an ultrasonic transducer, SAW, CCD,CMOS, capacitor plate, capacitance sensor or antenna, for receivingwaves from a space above a seat portion of the seat and processor meanscoupled to the receiver means for generating a signal representative ofthe presence or absence of an occupant in the seat based on the wavesreceived by the receiver means. The determining means may optionallyinclude transmitter means for transmitting waves into the space abovethe seat portion of the seat which are receivable by the receiver means.Further, the determining means may be designed to determine the positionof the occupant or a part thereof when an occupant is in the seat inwhich case, the control means are arranged to control deployment of sideairbag based on the determined position of the occupant or part thereof.

[0315] One method for controlling deployment of an airbag from an airbagmodule comprising the steps of determining the position of the occupantor a part thereof, and controlling deployment of the airbag based on thedetermined position of the occupant or part thereof. The position of theoccupant or part thereof is determined as in the arrangement describedabove.

[0316] Another method for controlling deployment of an airbag comprisesthe steps of detennining whether an occupant is present in the seat, andcontrolling deployment of the airbag based on the presence or absence ofan occupant in the seat. The presence of the occupant, and optionallyposition of the occupant or a part thereof, are determined as in thearrangement described above.

[0317] Furthermore, disclosed above are methods for controlling a systemin the vehicle based on an occupying item in which at least a portion ofthe passenger compartment in which the occupying item is situated isirradiated, radiation from the occupying item are received, e.g., by aplurality of sensors or transducers each arranged at a discretelocation, the received radiation is processed by a processor in order tocreate one or more electronic signals characteristic of the occupyingitem based on the received radiation, each signal containing a patternrepresentative and/or characteristic of the occupying item and eachsignal is then categorized by utilizing pattern recognition techniquesfor recognizing and thus identifying the class of the occupying item. Inthe pattern recognition process, each signal is processed into acategorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns ofreceived radiation stored within the pattern recognition means andassociated with possible classes of occupying items of the vehicle. Oncethe signal(s) is/are categorized, the operation of the system in thevehicle may be affected based on the categorization of the signal(s),and thus based on the occupying item. If the system in the vehicle is avehicle communication system, then an output representative of thenumber of occupants and/or their health or injury state in the vehiclemay be produced based on the categorization of the signal(s) and thevehicle communication system thus controlled based on such output.Similarly, if the system in the vehicle is a vehicle entertainmentsystem or heating and air conditioning system, then an outputrepresentative of specific seat occupancy may be produced based on thecategorization of the signal(s) and the vehicle entertainment system orheating and air conditioning system thus controlled based on suchoutput. In one embodiment designed to ensure safe operation of thevehicle, the attentiveness of the occupying item is determined from thesignal(s) if the occupying item is an occupant, and in addition toaffecting the system in the vehicle based on the- categorization of thesignal, the system in the vehicle is affected based on the determinedattentiveness of the occupant.

[0318] One embodiment of the interior monitoring system in accordancewith the invention comprises means for irradiating at least a portion ofthe passenger compartment in which an occupying item is situated,receiver means for receiving radiation from the occupying item, e.g., aplurality of receivers, each arranged at a discrete location, processormeans coupled to the receivers for processing the received radiationfrom each receiver in order to create a respective electronic signalcharacteristic of the occupying item based on the received radiation,each signal containing a pattern representative of the occupying item,categorization means coupled to the processor means for categorizing thesignals, and output means coupled to the categorization means foraffecting another system within the vehicle based on the categorizationof the signals characteristic of the occupying item. The categorizationmeans may use a pattern recognition technique for recognizing and thusidentifying the class of the occupying item by processing the signalsinto a categorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns ofreceived radiation and associated with possible classes of occupyingitems of the vehicle. Each signal may comprise a plurality of data, allof which is compared to the data corresponding to patterns of receivedradiation and associated with possible classes of contents of thevehicle. In one specific embodiment, the system includes locationdetermining means coupled to the processor means for determining thelocation of the occupying item, e.g., based on the received radiationsuch that the output means which are coupled to the location determiningmeans, in addition to affecting the other system based on thecategorization of the signals characteristic of the occupying item,affect the system based on the determined location of the occupyingitem. In another embodiment to determine the presence or absence of anoccupant, the categorization means comprise pattern recognition meansfor recognizing the presence or absence of an occupying item in thepassenger compartment by processing each signal into a categorizationthereof signal based on data corresponding to patterns of receivedradiation and associated with possible occupying items of the vehicleand the absence of such occupying items.

[0319] Disclosed above is also an arrangement for controlling audioreception by at least one occupant of a passenger compartment of thevehicle which comprises a monitoring system for determining the positionof the occupant(s) and sound generating means coupled to the monitoringsystem for generating specific sounds. The sound generating means areautomatically adjustable based on the determined position of theoccupant(s) such that the specific sounds are audible to theoccupant(s). The sound generating means may utilize hypersonic sound,e.g., comprise one or more pairs of ultrasonic frequency generators forgenerating ultrasonic waves whereby for each pair, the ultrasonicfrequency generators generate ultrasonic waves which mix to therebycreate new audio frequencies. Each pair of ultrasonic frequencygenerators is controlled independently of the others so that each of theoccupants is able to have different new audio frequencies created.

[0320] For noise cancellation purposes, the vehicle can include a systemfor detecting the presence and direction of unwanted noise whereby thesound generating means are coupled to the unwanted noise presence anddetection system and direct sound to prevent reception of the unwantednoise by the occupant(s).

[0321] If the sound generating means comprise speakers, the speakersbeing controllable based on the determined positions of the occupantssuch that at least one speaker directs sounds toward each occupant.

[0322] The monitoring system may be any type of system which is capableof determining the location of the occupant, or more specifically, thelocation of the head or ears of the occupants. For example, themonitoring system may comprise at least one wave-receiving sensor forreceiving waves from the passenger compartment, and a processor coupledto the wave-receiving sensor(s) for determining the position of theoccupant(s) based on the waves received by the wave-receiving sensor(s).The monitoring system can also determine the position of objects otherthan the occupants and control the sound generating means inconsideration of the determined position of the objects.

[0323] A method for controlling audio reception by occupants in avehicle comprises the steps of determining the position of at least oneoccupant of the vehicle, providing a sound generator for generatingspecific sounds and automatically adjusting the sound generator based onthe determined position of the occupant(s) such that the specific soundsare audible to the occupant(s). The features of the arrangementdescribed above may be used in the method.

[0324] Another arrangement for controlling audio reception by occupantsof a passenger compartment of the vehicle comprises a monitoring systemfor determining the presence of any occupants and sound generating meanscoupled to the monitoring system for generating specific sounds. Thesound generating means are automatically adjustable based on thedetermined presence of any occupants such that the specific sounds areaudible to any occupants present in the passenger compartment Themonitoring system and sound generating means may be as in thearrangement described above. However, in this case, the sound generatingmeans are controlled based on the determined presence of the occupants.

[0325] All of the above-described methods and apparatus may be used inconjunction with one another and in combination with the methods andapparatus for optimizing the driving conditions for the occupants of thevehicle described herein.

[0326] Although several preferred embodiments are illustrated anddescribed above, there are possible combinations using other geometries,sensors, materials and different dimensions for the components thatperform the same functions. This invention is not limited to the aboveembodiments and should be determined by the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A vehicle including a system for obtaining informationabout an object in the vehicle, comprising: at least one resonator orreflector arranged in association with the object, said at least oneresonator being arranged to emit an energy signal upon receipt of asignal at an excitation frequency; transmitter means for transmittingsignals at least at the excitation frequency of each of said at leastone resonator; energy signal detector means for detecting the energysignal emitted by said at least one resonator upon receipt of the signalat the excitation frequency; and a processor coupled to said detectormeans for obtaining information about the object upon analysis of theenergy signal detected by said detector means.
 2. The vehicle of claim1, wherein the information obtained about the object is a distancebetween each of said at least one resonator and said detector means. 3.The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the object is a seat whereby theinformation obtained about the seat is an indication of the position ofthe seat.
 4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein said at least one resonatoris arranged within the object.
 5. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein saidat least one resonator is a SAW device, antenna or RFID tag.
 6. Thevehicle of claim 1, wherein said at least one resonator comprises aplurality of resonators, each of said resonators being arranged to emitan energy signal upon receipt of a signal at a different excitationfrequency.
 7. The vehicle of claim 6, wherein the object is a seat, afirst one of said resonators being arranged at a front of a seat bottomportion, a second one of said resonators being arranged at a back of theseat bottom portion and a third one of said resonators being arranged ata top of a seat back portion.
 8. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein saidtransmitter means and said detector means are co-located constituting atleast one transducer.
 9. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the object is aseatbelt whereby the information obtained about the seatbelt is anindication of whether the seatbelt is in use.
 10. The vehicle of claim1, wherein the object is a seatbelt whereby the information obtainedabout the seatbelt is an indication of the position of the seatbelt. 11.The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the object is a child seat whereby theinformation obtained about the child seat is at least one of anindication of whether the child seat is present and an indication ofwhether a child seat is rear-facing.
 12. The vehicle of claim l, whereinthe object is a window of the vehicle whereby the information obtainedabout the window is an indication of whether the window is open orclosed, or the state of openness.
 13. The vehicle of claim 1, whereinthe object is a door, said at least one resonator being arranged in asurface facing the door such that closure of the door prevents emissionof the energy signal from said at least one resonator, whereby theinformation obtained about the door is an indication of whether the dooris open or closed.
 14. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein said at least oneresonator comprises a tuned resonator including an acoustic cavity or avibrating mechanical element.
 15. A vehicle including a system forobtaining information about an object in the vehicle, comprising atleast one reflector arranged in association with the object, said atleast one reflector being arranged to reflect an energy signal;transmitter means for transmitting energy signals in a direction of eachof said at least one reflector; energy signal detector means fordetecting energy signals reflected by said at least one reflector; and aprocessor coupled to said detector means for obtaining information aboutthe object upon analysis of the energy signal detected by said detectormeans.
 16. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein said at least one reflectorcomprises a parabolic-shaped reflector.
 17. The device of claim 15,wherein said at least one reflector comprises a corner cube reflector ora cube array reflector.
 18. The device of claim 15, wherein said atleast one reflector comprises an antenna reflector.
 19. The vehicle ofclaim 15, wherein the information obtained about the object is adistance between each of said at least one reflector and said detectormeans.
 20. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the object is a seat wherebythe information obtained about the seat is an indication of the positionof the seat.
 21. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein said at least onereflector is arranged within the object.
 22. The vehicle of claim 15,wherein said transmitter means and said detector means are co-locatedconstituting at least one transducer.
 23. The vehicle of claim 15,wherein the object is a seatbelt whereby the information obtained aboutthe seatbelt is an indication of whether the seatbelt is in use.
 24. Thevehicle of claim 14, wherein the object is a seatbelt whereby theinformation obtained about the seatbelt is an indication of the positionof the seatbelt.
 25. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the object is achild seat whereby the information obtained about the child seat is atleast one of an indication of whether the child seat is present and anindication of whether the child seat is rear-facing.
 26. The vehicle ofclaim 15, wherein the object is a window of the vehicle whereby theinformation obtained about the window is an indication of whether thewindow is open or closed or the state of openness.
 27. The vehicle ofclaim 15, wherein the object is a door, said at least one reflectorbeing arranged in a surface facing the door such that closure of thedoor prevents reflection of an energy signal by said at least onereflector, whereby the information obtained about the door is anindication of whether the door is open or closed.
 28. The vehicle ofclaim 15, wherein said transmitter means comprise an infrared lasersystem and said at least one reflector comprises an optical mirror. 29.A motor vehicle detection system, comprising: at least one transmitterfor transmitting energy signals toward a target in a passengercompartment of the vehicle; at least one reflector arranged inassociation with said target; at least one detector for detecting energysignals reflected by said at least one reflector.
 30. The detectionsystem of claim 29, further comprising a processor coupled to said atleast one detector for obtaining information about the target uponanalysis of the energy signal detected by said at least one detector.31. The detection system of claim 30, wherein the information obtainedabout the object is a distance between each of said at least onereflector and said at least one detector.
 32. The detection system ofclaim 30, wherein the target is a seat whereby the information obtainedabout the seat is an indication of the position of the seat.
 33. Thedetection system of claim 30, wherein the target is a seatbelt wherebythe information obtained about the seatbelt seat is an indication ofwhether the seatbelt is in use.
 34. The detection system of claim 30,wherein the target is a seatbelt whereby the information obtained aboutthe seatbelt is an indication of the position of the seatbelt.
 35. Thedetection system of claim 30, wherein the target is a child seat wherebythe information obtained about the child seat is an indication ofwhether the child seat is present and rear-facing.
 36. The detectionsystem of claim 30, wherein the target is a window of the vehiclewhereby the information obtained about the window is an indication ofwhether the window is open or closed or the state of openness.
 37. Thedetection system of claim 27, wherein the target is a door, said atleast one reflector being arranged in a surface facing the door suchthat closure of the door prevents reflection of an energy signal by saidat least one reflector, whereby the information obtained about the dooris an indication of whether the door is open or closed.
 38. Thedetection system of claim 26, wherein said at least one reflectorcomprises a parabolic-shaped reflector.
 39. The detection system ofclaim 26, wherein said at least one reflector is arranged within thetarget.
 40. The detection system of claim 26, wherein said at least onetransmitter and said at least one detector are positioned together.